In two months
by admcc93
Summary: hinata's just the new kid in town, but what happens when she's told she's engaged to none other than sasuke uchiha? again: i suck at summaries... forgive me, please.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Naruto… never have, never will!**

**Chapter one.**

I watched as my parents and Hanabi rushed through the house, putting things away and waited for them to be done.

"Hinata, honey, are you done putting your things in the trunk of the car?" my mother asked me while she had a big box in her arms.

I nodded. "Yep. I'm already done packing, unpacking, repacking and putting it all in the car. I must be a magic worker." I said, not meaning to say that much, it had just came to me, I couldn't stop it.

She smiled at me. "You don't want to move and I understand: I also had to move around a lot when I was your age and I hated my parents for it. But nothing will really change much. Everything will be just as it was before once you familiarize and make new friends." She said trying to get me to understand.

I looked at her. "I don't care, really for the fact that I'll be leaving my friends. It's more because you always move like this and I don't even get to say anything in protest because it's because dad's job needs us to go to a different place." I said. I really didn't open up much to anyone except my mother, because my father already thought I was weak, so he wouldn't even try to listen to me and Hanabi thought she was superior to me in everything even though she was the younger one of the two. "And incase you hadn't noticed, I really don't make friends in the places you both choose to move to. Everyone shies me off with ease because I always do what others tell me to do, pathetically, and I don't like it." I said faking a pout.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll make great friends at this new place." Mother said as I helped her with the box moving. "I heard that our neighbors are old friends of your father's and they have to sons. One older than you, the other is your age, though." She said smiling. She knew how I'd never gotten close to boys in particular because they thought I was weird since I didn't speak a lot and I moved a lot, so they also ignored me for that.

"Mom." I said with a sigh of fake desperation to which she laughed.

When we'd put the box in the U-haul truck, father and Hanabi brought some other things and we were off. Mom and I had taken the car, Hanabi and dad the rented U-haul truck.

When I got in the car, I started drawing something random and found myself coloring it also and I drew two eyes. They were red and had black in them. It looked like something you would see in a cartoon, to tell the truth. After that I found myself drawing a fox. Where were these drawings coming from? I didn't get it.

"Those are pretty good." Mother said seeing the two drawings while I was comparing them to think about which one was the strangest.

I looked at her confused. Good? They looked like something in a cartoon for god's sake. They weren't real. I normally drew real things that were in the real world. Not in cartoons.

Giving up on the contest of 'which drawing is weirdest?' I started drawing again, hoping that it wouldn't be something ridiculous again.

Luck certainly wasn't on my side. I drew what looked like a spiral with nine points around it and, certainly, it didn't really exist. It looked like a seal in a manga that I'd seen.

We stopped when I was done drawing the last of the three and I helped the others bring the random things in the house, when I found myself walking back to the door, I felt Hanabi trip me and I looked at the open door to see two boys watching the scene and I glared at my sister before going to see what the hell they wanted.

"Hello. How may I help you?" I said sounding like an information booth. I didn't like the boy with black hair and black eyes. He looked sort of odd and I thought I'd seen him somewhere before.

"His mother told us to bring these here." The blond boy next to the suspicious looking one said.

I took the plate that had brownies on it and looked at the plate. "Do you want the plate back?" I said curious. No one anyplace that we'd been had given us a 'welcoming' gift. Then I thought about what my mother had said when we were moving that box.

"Idiot. Just accept the brownies quietly." Hanabi said taking the plate from my hands. I was seriously starting to hate her. But it was only natural: she was fourteen and starting high school with the oh so popular preps deceiving her to the point of making her their friends, so she was getting their bad habits.

"What ever." I mumbled. Then I turned back to the boys. "Well, tell his mother that the Hyuugas thank her." I said making it clear that I wasn't thanking them, but the black haired boy's mother.

"Will do." The blond said with a grin.

I smiled back and then I waited for them to leave before closing the door, making sure it was closed so that another event like that wouldn't happen.

"Hinata, honey?" mom said. "Would you be a dear and go get yours and you sister's school uniforms?" she asked moving something. "The school's just a couple blocks away from here." She added seeing my undecided face.

"Fine." I said getting my coat, though I didn't understand why we needed uniforms.

When I was outside of the house I saw the blond boy and the black haired boy entering the house next door and I swear I could have fainted right then and there. I didn't exactly know why, I just could have.

"Oi!" the blond boy said waving once he saw me. The dark haired boy just rolled his eyes and entered the house.

I smiled back and then started walking towards where the school supposedly was.

The blond boy caught up with me dragging the other boy with him who looked reluctant to even try to go with him. Apparently, his parents were making him go out with him and hence the blond dragging him towards me. "Where you goin'?" he asked me still smiling.

"The school?" I said tentatively. I didn't know for sure if it was this way, and I didn't want to look like a complete idiot for now since I'd just gotten here.

"Sasuke-teme and I will com with ya. Kay?" he said with his oh so ever loud voice.

I nodded with a small smile. "Sure." I said to the blond. "By the way: I don't know your names." I said. I'd understood the black haired boy's, but I hadn't yet heard the blonde's name.

He started walking with a pensive look on his face to which I looked at him strangely. "Okay. I'm Naruto. He's Sasuke." He introduced.

"Okay." I said smiling. "I'm Hinata Hyuuga. Nice to meet ya." I said strangely not stuttering. But I hadn't stuttered in a while, now that I thought about it.

We walked and the blond boy kept talking and talking it slowly got annoying, but he was being nice to me and that was rare. Normally I was treated like the outsider usually because of my eyes. They didn't have a pupil and were light lavender colored. Everyone in my family had my same type of eyes, but Hanabi was treated like a god because she was pretty, confident and a cheerleader. Typical, huh?

We eventually arrived at the school, though I wasn't sure if it was the right one.

"It's the closest school to our house." The blond boy said. "So it's probably this one." There was a short pause. "Well? Come on." He took my arm and Sasuke's in his own and dragged us to the school entrance.

"I can walk on my own!" I heard Sasuke complain while he struggled to get Naruto's out of his own.

He stopped and let us go and I straightened my shirt out and saw random people staring at the group of three. Particularly I saw a pink haired girl staring at Sasuke like other thousands were, but she was the only one that wasn't even considering me and suddenly I felt that hated feeling from my throat that meant that I was about to cry for no good reason.

I looked at Naruto and smiled. "Okay. That's all really. You can go back home if you want." I said with a fake smile on my face before walking into the school and going to the office that I presumed would be the principle's.

"Excuse me." I said before I saw the woman behind the desk. "I'm Hyuuga Hinata and I'm here to get my sister's and my uniform." I said looking at the blond woman.

She examined me before getting something from inside her desk drawer and handing out two uniforms and two schedules. She did this while smiling. "Welcome to Konoha high." She said still smiling.

I bowed my head with the uniforms and the schedules in my arms and mumbled a short good bye and left the school silently. The group of people was gone and I saw Naruto trying to flirt with the pink haired beauty from before while she only paid attention to Sasuke and I passed them, hoping to go by unnoticed when Sasuke grabbed onto my arm.

"You have to suffer this soon enough anyway. Stay." He said lamely.

I stared at him really confused when I realized that he was annoyed by the other two loudmouths. Who wouldn't be? Naruto was acceptable by himself. Now he was just annoying, and I always tried to only think of the best of people, but that got pretty hard with the pink haired girl and Naruto who was pathetically trying to get her to notice him.

"You're new aren't you?" the girl said with a small shriek and smiling. She took my arms and started jumping up and down and I suddenly thought that she was crazy… she had to be. "Let's be friends!" she said like a little kid. It was amusing to see someone so hyped up to see me and want me to be their friend.

I nodded with a small smile and managed to grab the uniforms before they fell into a puddle of mud that I was standing over. The papers were still on top of them, so they didn't get damaged either. "I'm sorry, but I have to get home before my parents kill me for being late." I said walking backwards, away from them. Too much attention would kill me, I was sure. Especially if it was coming from that girl.

"Wait up!" Sasuke yelled obviously trying to get away from the two loud mouthed kids. When he caught up with me he sighed and stayed silent again.

When I got home all the boxes were in the house and the U-haul van was gone.

Sasuke had left me when we reached my driveway and had continued walking straight to what I presumed was his house. He was our next door neighbor and all.

"Finally!" my sister exclaimed when I entered the living room and was about to put the uniforms in a neat pile on the couch. She snatched her uniform that was the smaller one and rushed upstairs probably to put it in her soon to be room. "Thanks." She said before disappearing behind the wall in the hallway.

The rest of the day was spent putting things away and mother went to buy groceries before father returned, planning on making dinner for the three of us.

"Where's father?" I asked Hanabi thinking she would know.

She shrugged and then put some chips in her mouth from a bag that she'd brought with her from our old house.

The next day school would start for us and I was actually happy about it. It was the first time my whole life that I was looking forward to the first day of school. I'd be the new girl, of course, and people would make fun of me and say that I looked weird, I was sure. But knowing people that were already there would be comforting. Even if two of them were loud mouthed crazy people that needed to go to a hospital.

That night, I went to sleep without eating and I woke up the next morning thanks to my alarm clock and I changed into my uniform without protest before letting my sister do something to my face and hair. She tended to do that even I protested the whole morning, so I had become accustomed to it. She woke up earlier than I did, so she found putting makeup on me entertaining.

She was actually pretty good at it too; I had to admit.

When we left the house we met Naruto and Sasuke as they passed our house. The blue didn't suit Naruto that much, but Sasuke actually looked pretty good in formal clothes. The uniform was made of a blue, thin jacket and a blue and white tie to go with the dark blue jeans and white shirt. The girls' uniform was the same only that they had a skirt instead of jeans.

"Hi." I said to them smiling.

Naruto turned around and smiled. "Hey, Hinata." He said with a small wave.

Hanabi looked at them before remembering where she'd seen them before. "You're the boys from yesterday!" she exclaimed content that she'd been able to remember properly.

"Yeah, and you're the kid that tripped Hinata." Sasuke said plainly.

I knew my eyes were deceiving me when I thought I saw a small blush on her cheeks. Hanabi never blushed. Never! She was the most laid back person I knew. Why would she blush? And towards Sasuke, no less.

We arrived at the school and Hanabi, Naruto and I had to leave Sasuke's side because of the herd of girls that ambushed him as soon as he got through the gates. But, being who I am, I felt sorry for him and was the last one to leave. Dragged away from Naruto, no less.

"What were you thinking, staying there?" he asked me as if I were the crazy, loud mouthed one.

"Don't you feel sorry for him?" I asked.

"Not really. Damn teme's getting what he deserves." He said as if he were convinced it was the truth.

I stared at him unbelievingly. Was he for real? What had happened to the two of them that made him hate Sasuke that much?

The bell rang and I looked at my schedule. "Kurenai-sensei." I murmured. "Singing class." Then I looked at the room number and walked towards the classroom.

There I saw Sakura talking to a brunette with her hair in two buns and a blond haired girl who had her hair in four pigtails and a fan in her hand.

The professor saw me and told me to sit by another blond haired girl with blue eyes and a part of her hair was in a ponytail, the other half was over the right side of her face, making it hard to see her whole face.

"Okay, class." She said to the few people in the classroom. There were about fifteen, maybe twenty, but obviously, they were divided into groups, though I didn't know how they were divided. Maybe it was just cliques, or maybe the teacher had put them like that. "You did study during summer vacation, right?" Kurenai said to them with her head tilted in a dangerous way. Everyone nodded except me. I had no idea what they were talking about. Then Kurenai came over to me and smiled. "Here you go." She said handing me a whole book full of photocopies that were obviously songs that had been given to the others for summer.

"Arigato." I said smiling towards her.

She smiled back and then turned to the rest of the class, her face going stern again. "Sakura, start for us will ya?" she said nodding towards Sakura.

"'Course." She answered before starting to sing with a voice that could have been defined angelic.

I memorized the rhythm and notes and started humming to it. Quietly, so I didn't interrupt her, but I did.

Of course, Ino realized this and stared at me confused. "You know, that's actually a hard song. How'd you learn that quickly?" she asked her.

"Listening." I said taking a break from humming. "And everyone says that I'm good at singing and reading notes, so these are enough for me to know how the song is." I added indicating the sheets of paper that were in the note book that Kurenai-sensei had given me.

She stared at me absently and quieted down when Sakura stopped singing and sat down again. Kurenai was smiling at her satisfied. "Anyone else want to try?" she asked in a daring manner. She was pretty strict and you had to get every note right on one song before you could move to another; at least, this was what Ino just told me.

I still wanted to try, so I put my hand up.

The whole class turned to stare at me amazed. They were probably thinking that the new girl was giving herself too much attention and wanted to be Kurenai-sensei's 'pet'. I didn't, though. This song was actually pretty easy.

"Okay." She said with a small smile. "If you don't do it right, I can overlook it. You're new." She seemed nice.

Anyway, I sang standing up as she had told me to and Sakura gasped. I didn't know why though. I wasn't as good as her. Or so I thought. I ended up getting an A+ whereas Sakura had gotten an A-. That was odd. I wasn't even that good.

The bell rang after the class had gotten over the shock. I was used to it, but this was the first time I got more than a B.

Next was literature. With… Kakashi-sensei. That wasn't bad. He didn't talk. He just continued reading some book that Sakura told me he always brought to the school. She sat next to me and we were just talking through the whole hour while others spoke on their own. No one really paid attention to Kakashi even when he deemed them of a full phrase.

After that came science with Orochimaru-sensei. Here I had Sasuke and Naruto to keep me company and then I noticed the girl from singing class. The blond one that I was told to sit by. She was next to the girl with four pigtails and they were just talking. Orochimaru seemed even more strict than Kurenai and I sweat dropped when he hissed – no literally: HISSED – at the class and everyone squeaked out of fear. He wasn't that frightening. Not for me anyway.

Later I had history and after that, nothing really happened. I discovered that the school was actually at a pretty low level and got a lot of high grades just the first day because I knew many answers to the questions that were asked.

After school Hanabi met Sasuke, Naruto and me and we headed to our houses.

Sasuke pulled me back, leaving some space between us and Naruto and Hanabi. I looked back at him confused, waiting for him to tell me why he'd just done that.

It never came. They just walked back to our houses in silence. It wasn't even an awkward silence. Just silence.

"Is something wrong?" I said just before we turned to get to our neighborhood.

He just shook his head and continued walking in silence.

"Are you sure?" I said just to be sure. I tilted my head in his direction and watched him.

His temper suddenly rose and he glared at me. "Yes!" she almost shouted.

I flinched and then started walking faster. "Fine." I murmured to myself. I was trying to be nice and he was shouting at me?! That wasn't something I wanted people doing to me.

When I got to my house door, Hanabi was about to close it behind her and I ran to catch up so that she wouldn't close me out. I didn't have a key to open the door. Only she did since she was the more 'responsible' of the two.

Life was so unfair.

For no real reason, I looked behind me to see if Sasuke had actually started walking again. He had and was staring at me looking _confused_. He couldn't be serious. I stomped in the house and saw that my father had finally come back.

He was watching me as if I were crazy, then he turned around and left the hallway, probably seeing my outraged face. I had learned that I could be much worse than my mother when I was angry, but usually I was calm and patient. It was very rare for me to be _mad._ It was something that didn't happen with people that I'd just met, but that Sasuke guy was a _huge_ exception.

Later that evening my father told me to follow him to one of the many rooms in the house. This one he'd made into the meeting room, or his office, as he would like to call it, and before I realized anything, he told me that I had been given as betrothed to that Sasuke boy.

I stared at him for a while before realizing that he wasn't kidding.

"Why?" I said, steam coming out of my ears since he hadn't told me any earlier.

"Simple. I don't want you to be the my successor and this was the only way to make sure you weren't." he said flatly. "Hanabi is a much better heir."

My head dropped and I realized that tears were forming in my eyes. I knew he'd always thought like that, but it hurt to hear him say it out loud.

I got up without waiting for his permission and left the room, slamming the door as hard as I could.

I walked calmly to my room and locked the door behind me so no one would be able to worsen my mood. In my room I lay on my bed and cried silently into one of my pillows.

"Honey?" mom's voice said from the other side of the door. "What's wrong?" she asked after trying to open the door and realizing it was locked.

I didn't answer, just continued laying there quietly.

"Hinata." She said as if I weren't being reasonable. "Did your father say something that made you cry?" she asked. It wouldn't be the first time it happened, but I'd become used to it. This time, though, I didn't want it to be the truth. He'd openly said that Hanabi was better than me flatly and without any emotion.

I got up and unlocked the door before going back to my bed.

She entered when she heard the door unlock and sat on the bed's edge. "Hey." She said attempting a smile. "You know, your father just needs to chill out. You know that. He's always been how he is." She said, her smile now sincere. "You're a great person and people love you for it. It doesn't have to be your father. He's the coldest person you will ever know. I'm pretty sure I already told you that last week." She said with a small chuckle.

I didn't say anything. I just turned my back to her and my eyes were tearing again. I couldn't help it. It was stronger than me. Sometimes I just started crying for nothing, even. That was why I was considered weak by not only my father, but also from my whole family. It was because I couldn't hold my feelings in. I was probably the only one, but I couldn't have cared less.

She left the room later that night. Probably when I was asleep, because she was still on my bedside when I closed my eyes to sleep.

The next morning I got out of my bed and went to the kitchen. Yes, I had already memorized the whole house. Impressive, huh.

I went to school and we met Sasuke and Naruto on the way. I didn't say a word the whole way, while Naruto and Hanabi weren't _talking_, they were _shouting_ things to the others. It was quite annoying.

Sasuke, I noticed, didn't say much of anything either.

"Did you know?" I said knowing that he did. He had to. He was the _guy_.

He looked at me for a second, then caught on to what I was saying and nodded slightly. "They told me when I was younger." He said simply.

My fists tightened and I wanted to kill my father. Why was I always the one that knew of things at the last moment? Oh, yeah: my father's an ass. That's why. "Why didn't you tell me?" I said scowling, not at him, but at my father even though he wasn't there currently.

"Wasn't sure if it was you." He said in his defense.

Her eye twitched and she took a deep breath. "So isn't it useless if I stay at my house now? He said we'd marry when you're 20 and that isn't long from now." She said reasonably.

"Two months." He corrected her. They had two months until they were _forced_ into an arranged marriage. That was just great! And thinking about it, we were in the twenty first century, damn it. We weren't back in the medieval times when these things were regular.

"Oh, that just made my day!" I said with excessive sarcasm, but I just couldn't help it, this was how I reacted to something like that. I hated life. I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs like I used to do when I was at my other school.

"Oh, Hinata-chan, Sakura wanted to know if you could meet us after school." Naruto said turning to me.

I was taken a bit aback, but then nodded. "Of course." I said smiling.

After school, I saw Sakura and Naruto and Sasuke and the blond from singing class along with a red haired boy and another blond that had her hair up in four ponytails. Sakura waved me over and everyone looked at me weird, as if they were testing me by how I presented myself to them.

"Hey, Hinata." Sakura said smiling. "Boys can leave now. We didn't need you to begin with anyway." She said shooing Naruto off more than the others. "I just realized, along with them, you could really use a make over. The uniforms are only for the first week of school to make us look like actual behaved students, then we get to wear whatever. Not much logic behind it, but you really need to come to the mall with us." She said not intentionally offending me.

I gaped at her. Was she serious? She didn't really even know me, so why the hell was she offering to have me go to the mall with her and _her_ friends that I didn't even know. And I should have told my father first, so I got my phone out of my school bag and typed in my father's cell phone's number.

"What?" he said knowing it was me since he'd seen it on the caller ID, of course. He always addressed me like that and I'd become used to it.

"Uhm… I just wanted to tell you that I might get back home later than planned. That okay?" I said quietly, though I knew he could hear me.

"Fine." He said, then hung up without even saying goodbye or anything.

I was about to throw the cell phone as far away from myself as possible when I thought of my father's reaction if he found out that I had intentionally broken the cell that cost who knew how much and decided that it wasn't worth it.

"Okay." I said with a shaky voice. "I guess I can come." I said with a smile on my face that was clearly fake, by the way, but the most part of the group bought it, so it was fine.

Sakura smiled and took my arm as did Ino. Temari just kind of followed with the other boys who didn't _want _to leave. Each had a stupid reason that they didn't tell the girls no matter how much Sakura begged. At least, Sasuke and Gaara did. Not Naruto. The baka.

I was actually quite grateful that Sasuke hadn't left as I'd expected him to do.

After about three hours only, Sakura let us eat something at the food court.

"My treat!" she said smiling. Then she added: "For the girls." She said to Naruto. From what they'd told me he could eat a whole restaurant and still not have eaten enough. Everyone sweat dropped as Naruto pouted. He probably didn't have any money.

I was holding one bag that was full of different dresses that Sakura had forced me to let her buy me while the boys were holding boxes of shoes mostly, and some even had bags from random stores. I felt sorry for Sasuke who was holding many things, as was Naruto, but my fiancée hadn't volunteered and you could see that clearly on face.

"Do you want some help?" I asked the black haired boy who just looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"No." was his simple answer.

I nodded and turned back to the group of girls that were huddled up planning on where to go to eat lunch or the next store to go to.

I looked around us and saw no one I knew. Of course, what was I expecting? Everyone I knew was in another city.

"Hinata?" I heard a voice say behind me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**Chapter two.**

I turned and almost shouted when I saw my cousin, Neji. Instead, I dropped the bag and glomped him, causing the both of us to fall down.

I laughed and I slowly got off him. I'd been constantly surprising myself lately, this included.

"Neji!" I exclaimed finally, still smiling.

"Wow." Sakura said behind me. "You know Neji?" she asked me incredulously. She was staring at me wide eyed.

I nodded. "Of course: he's my cousin." I said nicely. "See? We have the same eyes." I pointed out.

They all looked at both of us and then nodded, shocked.

"You do." Was Tenten's response as she stared at my cousin, lust clear in her eyes.

I giggled.

"Tenten's in love." Sakura said teasingly. She was having a ball just watching her friend. "But why didn't you tell us that you're one of the most popular guys' in the school's cousin?" she asked politely.

I stared at her, then at Neji. Hmm… I guess he did have the potential to be the most popular boy in a school, I just wouldn't have suspected my next school to be the one. "I didn't know he went to our school. The last time I saw him was when I was seven." I said as if it were obvious.

"Oh." Was obviously the only thing Sakura could manage.

That was when I realized the bag was still on the floor and left my cousin so I could pick it up again.

Neji was dragged off by some other boys and what I was going to assume were fan girls because he looked annoyed by their presence, like he didn't want them to be there.

The girls (Sakura, Tenten, Ino and Temari) dragged me to somewhere where the five of us ate, leaving the boys to do whatever they could with the boxes and bags they were carrying. I felt pity for them, but Sakura had _dragged_ me away. Literally: dragged.

Tenten may have looked like a tomboy, but she sure got a kick out of shopping and usually bought the more expensive things. I couldn't afford anything that they got since my parents – or father – wouldn't loan money to me even though they had enough money to buy a mansion in the most expensive of neighborhoods. And Temari was the same.

Ino and Sakura didn't seem that close at times, but then they would be all attached to each other like the best of friends. It was… different… but amusing, also.

We left the mall at around eight thirty (much later than I'd planned) and I had to run back home, not caring if my father cared that I was home late, but mother would have, I was sure of that.

"Hun?" mom said when I closed the door behind me. Her voice was apparently neutral, but I knew better. I knew so much better.

I laughed nervously. "Hey mom." I said still laughing awkwardly.

"You do realize it's eight forty, right? Just about… forty minutes after your curfew?" she said, her voice assuming a hint of anger in her voice.

I could only nod because I knew that if I said anything, she probably would have been able to use it against me, like in a court or something. Yeah: she was that harsh when she wanted to be. And she didn't really yell at you, she was just able to make you feel guilty, more than anything.

Anyway… mother lectured me and I noticed father adding his usual nod that was really getting on my nerves. He was just asking for me to personally kill him, but I kept from doing it seriously. He may have been annoying, but he was still my father.

When mom was done, I went to my room and lay on my bed. I'd done my homework during free period. Goes to show you how hard the school is…

Soon enough, I fell asleep even though it was still early and didn't wake up until just before sunrise.

I lied on my bed and waited for the adults to leave to go to their new jobs and then and only then, I got up and put my uniform on before going through the usual routine with Hanabi.

When we got out of the house… guess who we met? Yep: my future fiancée and the loud mouthed blond that he seemed to follow all the time or vice versa, however that worked out. Honestly speaking, I thought that they planned the whole 'coincidence' thing each morning.

When we got to the school I felt like running away from the blond boy. He was way too hyper for my liking.

"Where's…" I got cut off by my cousin presenting himself behind me, making me jump. "Hi." I said smiling, once I was over the shock.

"Hey." Was all I got back before the bell rang and he followed me to my first class. He had probably been told to follow me or something because he was never like this when we were younger. He actually had had a grudge against me previously, though I still didn't know exactly why.

At lunch, she sat with the others and just listened to their complaints on the food from the boys, and the girls were talking about the next day which was, from what I understood, the day that everyone would be wearing 'normal' clothes, if that was what you could define clothes that barely fit and showed a lot of cleavage.

"Hinata." Sakura said calling me back to reality.

I jumped and looked at her. She was next to Neji that was on my right, while Sasuke was across the table from me on the end of the table.

"We were just talking about what clubs we want to join tomorrow." She said over Neji. "Hey, no offense, but could you switch spots with Neji? Leaning back is annoying." She said still leaning.

I nodded and Neji got up and was doing a good job glaring at other people that glanced at our table. I ignored it and then the girls got back to talking, every now and then, I would answer to a question that was made to me, but most of the time, I was thinking about how to tell two girls that were head over heals for Sasuke, that he was my fiancée without making them hate me for not having told them earlier.

While I was thinking, though, the bell rang and I had to hurry to science again, Ino, Sasuke and Naruto behind me.

"I have to tell Sakura." I said to myself right before we entered the science lab.

Apparently Ino had heard me, along with Sasuke.

"What do you have to tell Sakura?" Ino asked me curious.

I panicked and felt my face go white. Everyone in the class was watching us along with the professor who was tapping his fingers on the desk that was closest to him with impatience.

"Please." He said not continuing the phrase on purpose.

We walked to our seats and I felt Ino's gaze on me during the whole period. Well, I didn't have much time to think about how to tell the two with that. She was staring at me, maybe even glaring. I didn't even try to turn around to see what it was that she was doing – staring or glaring – because I already knew it was the latter.

At the bell, she got to my side as fast as she could and caught my arm. "What do you have to tell Sakura?" she persisted.

I sighed and looked over to Sasuke for help, but he didn't do anything for me. Of course. What was I expecting? For that jerk to help his fiancée? Man was I in for a surprise then.

"It involves Sasuke, doesn't it?" she said probably noting my eyes shifting.

"Would you be mad if I told you that him and I are engaged?" I tented.

She stared at me blankly for a while, probably trying to get what I said into her head. "YOU WHAT!" she eventually yelled and for a second, I thought I saw flames spreading around her.

I looked at her apologetically, knowing that it was going to end up like that. "I'm sorry." I said with my head low.

She was hyperventilating and glaring daggers at me. "YOU'RE SORRY!?" she yelled.

"I didn't want this!" I said firmly back. "It was arranged by our parents. I was only told two days ago."

She looked at me still mad, then she turned and left me standing there with only myself to confront myself with.

I felt like crying, but I blinked back the tears that were forming in my eyes and walked towards my next class.

After school I met Sakura and saw Ino with her, telling her something in her ear and I sighed, knowing I was busted.

Sakura walked up to me with an unexpected smile on her face when she reached me. She didn't seem too happy, though. "Hey, 'Nata." She said with the fake smile still on her face. "Do you need to tell me something?" she asked.

I sighed. "Ino probably told you before, am I correct?" I said blankly. "I was forced into an engagement with Sasuke. I'm sorry for not telling you before, but I was told only two days ago." I said with Neji behind me. He'd been following me for a while now and had actually punched some goy that had tried to only talk to me.

Her smile faded and her eyes shadowed over. I knew she was about to cry. She probably thought that Sasuke had liked me or something, something that was way out of the question, and I felt pity for her.

"As much as I hate the whole thing, I'm going to just accept it." She said, recovering from her state of depression. She was actually acting… mature? "I don't want to lose any friends that I already have, so I'm not going to say it was your fault, as Ino is saying." She said smiling, though I could see clearly that it was a fake smile.

"If you want to be mad, you can." I said truthfully. "I'm used to people hurting me both physically and mentally. You wouldn't be the first on the long list of people that had done that." I said looking away from her, waiting for the impact of the punch. When it didn't come, I looked up at her and she was looking at Neji worriedly and was glancing at me curiously every now and then.

"Hinata." I heard a familiar voice say behind me. "We have to leave." It said.

I turned to see Sasuke glaring at Neji, but was talking to me.

"Bye." I said to Sakura who just smiled back.

Mom and dad were, of course, waiting for me at home. Hanabi had probably already gotten home before since I had stayed behind to talk to Sakura. They looked like they were going out and I supposed that they were and then mom smiled at me and told me that they would be out at one of dad's employer's house for some dinner. Just then, they left me in the house with Hanabi, whom I was supposed to watch… suuurrre. Like I was going to do _that_. She could look after herself just great. I wasn't about to make her listen to me. Kami, no.

"Hey, sis?" I heard Hanabi saying from the hallway.

"Yeah?" I said from the couch in the living room.

She appeared with a wide grin on her face. "You're wearing this to school tomorrow." She announced holding up a baby blue dress that I recognized as the one that the other girls wanted me to wear also. But they'd said a week! This wasn't fair. I didn't like the dress. It arrived just at mid thigh with a really low v neck and it was open further than mid back. Sakura had forced me to get it and now, Hanabi was telling me that I was going to wear it no matter what.

_God hates me, doesn't he?_ I thought with a sigh.

"No." I surprised myself.

Apparently, Hanabi was also taken aback. "What?" she asked me disbelievingly.

"No. I'm not going to wear that." I said surprising both of us again.

"Oh yes you are." She said, her tone going from teasing to firm. "Young lady." She added to add to the effect.

I couldn't help it: I laughed. Hard. Eventually she laughed too until my cell phone vibrated in my pocket and I was forced to stop.

"Hello?" I said into it.

"Hey!" a familiar voice from the other end said.

"Kiba!" I practically shouted in the phone. Poor Kiba, I thought with a sweat drop forming on my forehead. He was probably rubbing his ears now.

"Ow, Hina." He said in a whiny voice.

"Sorry." I said with a small, apologetic smile that he couldn't see, of course.

He chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I'm getting used to it." He said nicely. Every time he called me I screamed something in the phone so if he wasn't used to it, he was… let's say… weird?

"Okay." I said smiling. Then my smile turned into a frown and I curled up in a ball on the couch I was sitting on. "Hey, I need… to tell you… something." I said, my voice muffled because my forehead was in my knees, so my voice wasn't so clear. "And promise me you won't come here and beat anyone senseless." I added.

He didn't say anything for a few moments, probably thinking that my father had hit me again, then he let out a grunt of approval since he didn't have much of a choice.

"My father forced me into a marriage." I said simply.

He didn't say anything for a good while; then he sighed and spoke. "Why?" he asked reluctantly. He probably already knew why; he just didn't want to admit it.

I took a deep breath and then told him precisely what my father had told me two days before.

"That BASTARD!" he said expectedly. "If I knew where you were, I'd come and kill that ass-whole!" he added.

"But…" I said, starting the phrase.

"I said I wouldn't." he finished with a sigh. I smiled. "You take the fun out of everything." He said teasingly.

I giggled. Then we talked for about another two hours, then his mother made him hang up and I could have just pictured her scolding him like she always did. I'd been present once and it had been quite amusing. He was the first friend that I'd made in the last city I'd been, but no body knew where I was because my father didn't want me to tell even my closest of friends. This had happened many times, even too many, but I'd never complained.

I hung up and then turned back to my sister that was still holding up that dress from before.

"I'm not wearing that." I said with my arms crossed.

"Why not?" she said in a whiny tone.

"Because I don't want to." I replied simply.

She scowled and I smirked.

**A.N: if you don't understand anything, tell me! I'm not understanding much myself so… yeah. Critiques WAY welcome, by the way.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Naruto.**

**And: where I currently live, high school lasts five years so you're still there at 19/20 years of age, so that's why they're still here. So… five years of a literal hell. **

Chapter three

The next morning, I was glaring at my sister. Sure, she didn't get me to wear the baby blue dress, but she forced me to wear a black mini skirt and a violet tank top. And of course, she'd put make up on me.

"Stop looking at me like that." She said sighing. "You look good like that and you know it. I don't understand why you have to wear baggy clothes all the time. They make you look fat and that is something you are not." She said with a firm tone and she straightened her posture to look more 'serious'. Of course, I knew it was all an act, but I wasn't going to say that out loud so that she could rant about it all the time. "And you have a pair of shorts under the skirt, so don't say that you feel uncomfortable." She said with a daring tone.

I sighed. She was right about that. Sometimes I just hated her for knowing me _way _too well. "Fine." I said in defeat. I looked at my watch and gasped. "We need to go, or we won't make it in time." I said getting up from my chair at the kitchen table. Of course, I was running out of the house and wasn't looking ahead of me.

Hence the: "Ow." I said when I bumped into someone that was in front of me, causing the both of us to fall on the ground.

I looked up at the black haired boy that had also fallen along with me.

"Sorry, Sasuke." I said slightly blushing. Honestly, I didn't like the blush, but they just came spontaneously and I couldn't do much about it. I got up and put my hand out to help him up also, but he just waved it away and got up on his own, as if being helped up would damage his reputation or something.

"Why are you running?" Hanabi shouted towards me. I could hear the laugh coming up just from her voice and I growled silently. She tended to get on my nerves easily. Why? I didn't know.

"Because I have Kurenai-sensei at the first hour and she can't tolerate late students?" I tried. Although it was the truth, I didn't know if she'd believe me.

Instead she just nodded and we walked towards the school.

When we got to the school, I saw that in fact, no one was wearing the uniform anymore and I sighed, trying to see where Sakura and the others were from where I stood. Everyone except Sasuke that was dragged away from us from his fan girls that were crowding him again and I sighed, exasperated. This _had_ to stop and soon.

"Hinata!" I heard Sakura's loud voice call from somewhere. Then I saw her pink hair and headed towards that direction. "Wow!" she exclaimed seeing me. She was wearing a white skirt that reached just above her knees and a pink shirt that too small for her and left a part of her stomach uncovered. "You look great!" she added smiling warmly.

I exchanged the smile. "You do too." I said maintaining the smile. Of course, I doubted she would look ugly even with her make up smeared across her face and the ugliest out fit on her. She was a natural beauty. I envied her, really. "My sister dressed me, so I can't take all the credit. I was just a guinea pig." I said still smiling.

We both laughed and then I realized that Neji was glaring at many boys, but I just ignored it. Many girls, though, I noticed were straining to not jump him, like they were doing to Sasuke.

I growled and walked over to the group that was surrounding him, telling the others that I'd be right back.

When I had made it through the crowd to the middle of it, I saw some girl making out with my fiancée and though I couldn't tell if he was responding, I started fuming; much like Ino had the day before when I had told her that I was engaged to the school heartthrob. That was just asking for trouble like that.

And I remind you that I did not want this all to happen, so what was about to do, wasn't out of jealousy, because I did not have feelings for Sasuke, but because my father would kill him, had he known that Sasuke was kissing someone of the school… right? I was right; right?

That's when panic hit me. I did _not _have feelings for this… for this…_ jerk_, did I? I couldn't have feelings for him. It was a crazy thought. But it was persistent. The question didn't leave my head until I was snapped back to reality by the bell and I saw the girl look reluctant to leave, but Sasuke was pushing her off him.

"Get away from him." I said in a much more threatening tone than I had intended.

She looked at me with a raised brow. "And you are?" she said with a tone that was probably supposed to intimidate me.

I looked her straight in the eyes. "His _fiancée_." I stated bitterly.

Her eyes widened for a second and then they turned normal again. "Prove it." She said in a tone that resembled my sister's earlier.

"Hinata!" I heard Sakura call me from the school entrance. "Hurry up or we'll be late." She added with the same intensity in her voice.

I glared at the girl for a second, then ran after Sakura. "Coming." I shouted after her.

Then we went to singing class and I asked Sakura about that girl.

"Oh, that's Karin. She's supposed to be Sasuke's number one fan girl and from what I understand, she's the 'leader' of the group that's always around him every morning." She explained calmly and casually, as if it was something that she saw every day, that of before. "She tends to make a move on him, but he almost never responds. Honestly, I think that he's getting annoyed by her." She added.

When we reached the classroom, I saw Ino glaring at me, daring me to sit by her.

"Sakura? Can I change my place by any chance?" I asked her, not wanting to sit next to the blond.

She laughed nervously. "I'm afraid you can't." she said apologetically.

I sighed in defeat and sat down next to Ino in silence. She didn't talk to me all period, but I could feel her eyes on me in an 'I'm going to kill you' way. I didn't get why she was taking this so badly. Sakura had taken it better _and _was still talking to me, so what her problem was, I didn't know.

After school, I waited for my sister out side the school doors and when she finally came out of the crowd, she made me wait for Sasuke and Naruto. I scoffed when I saw Sasuke and walked ahead of the group before I did something drastic like lunge at Sasuke and attempt to take his life with my nails. I didn't know why I was so angry at Sasuke, I just… was.

"So, sis. What'd you sign up for?" Hanabi asked me running up to catch up to me. "I signed up for cheerleading." She said expectedly. She'd always signed up for cheerleading, so I had been expecting her to sign up for that yet again.

I thought about it. "Choir and acting." I said smiling at her. "And volleyball." I added quickly.

"Tomorrow we have try outs, then." She said excitedly clapping her hands.

I nodded and we walked down the driveway to our house door.

"Bye!" Hanabi shouted to Sasuke and Naruto with a wave to which Naruto responded, Sasuke just looked ahead of himself, ignoring both our existences and I scowled. He could ignore me, but he could've at least _tried_ to be nicer to my sister.

I stomped inside the house after taking Hanabi's keys from her and after she entered, I slammed the door closed hard. Hanabi jumped at the unexpected noise and turned to me.

"That ass." I whispered. Again, I repeat: I didn't know why I was so pissed off with Sasuke. I. Just. Was.

And to think that I had to marry him in two month's time. I scoffed. Like that was going to happen… not in peace, anyway. That's what I thought. Apparently, my father didn't think the same thing.

Mom and dad were both still at work and so me and Hanabi were at the house alone like last night. I took advantage by doing my homework when my father wasn't there to stress me about doing every thing right and if I didn't it meant I was a…? – you guessed it! – 'Disgrace to the family.'

After that was done, my parents presented themselves, first mom and then father about a half hour after.

The next day, my sister made me wear shorts and another tank top. Of course, a lot of skin was showing, or else I would have been worried for a while about my sister. When ever she could, she made me wear clothes that were both skin tight and showed off a lot of skin.

The school started out with the tryouts and everyone gathered to watch all of them, so I felt self conscious when I had to tryout for volleyball. I was doing great because I was against that Karin person that I was finding useful as an anti-stress doll. All of my attacks were sent towards her, that whore.

I found many people cheering me on and I smirked. Obviously, not many girls liked the slut of the school. The boys were quiet… most of them were, anyway. If they weren't quiet, they were cheering for Karin. Honestly, though, I didn't give a damn. There were more girls in the school anyway. And I found that even some fan girls of Sasuke's were cheering for me.

My team won and so, the components of the team were all on the volleyball team, along with Karin and Kin that were on the opposing team. Sakura was with me, so she was on along with Ino that still wouldn't talk to me.

After that was choir tryout. I got in along with Sakura, Tenten and other girls I didn't know and one boy named Haku. He was nicer than many of the girls and the four of us were friends almost right away.

Okay, this might be weird, but I was looking forward to the acting tryouts. Our professor was Anko Mitarashi and I didn't know her, but everyone said she was odd.

But what made me really ticked off was that Sasuke had signed up for it after I did, so I had no idea until I saw him coming in the small theater-place that was in the school after I did and his fan girls were following him. Especially the whore. She was clinging to him again and I felt like punching her make up abused face.

Instead, I just sat where I was, awaiting my name to be called. When it was, I found out I had to do a part I hadn't even looked at. It was supposed to be done in pairs, so I didn't think that she would actually make me do that one. There was no one I could do it with.

"You've got to be kidding me." I said hearing Sasuke's voice being called along with mine. "Can't I do a different scene?" I asked the professor.

She seemed to think about it. "Nah." She decided with a shrug.

I sweat dropped and went to the stage. More than anything, she was infantile.

Turns out, we got in because of how 'well performed' we did the part. Well, DUH! It was a 'hate' scene. Of course we did it well. God!

"What is your problem?" he asked me when we were off the stage and Karin was begging Anko to let her do a part with Sasuke. Of course, she was turned down, but this didn't stop her from glaring at me with her whole being.

I stared at him with clear hate in my eyes, I was sure. "Ask yourself that. If you really hate me, then why don't you just call the engagement off? That'd get a bunch of things off my shoulders already. I don't like you. I despise you. You either hate me or just want to test me – which sounds just ridiculous to me, by the way – because you're clearly _flirting_ with that _whore_ in front of me. I don't like that." I answered walking towards the exit of the theater on the last two sentences. When I became like that, I had no idea. I was just acting out of instinct and this was how that came out. I knew I couldn't like him. He was a complete and total jerk who only thought about himself.

There, I was convinced. I didn't like him.

_Sure you don't._ A voice said in my head.

I scowled. I'd gotten more and more violent in these few days I'd been here and some small faction was probably seeing the whole thing as amusing, but the other part – the actual me, if you asked me – didn't.

There I had a goal: learn to stand Sasuke in the course of two months and be less violent. Yay.

Oh; another thing: I had to start making sense. I cringed at the thought. I'd never made sense when I was either angered or nervous and started saying random things, hoping others would try to make sense out of what I was saying.

After about… I don't know… another few hours of doing nothing but avoiding Sasuke while talking to Sakura and Temari and Tenten, I returned home and grimaced when my sister told me to wait for Naruto and Sasuke.

When we reached my house, I turned and left, saying bye to Naruto and ignoring Sasuke. He probably thought I was some crazy chick anyway, so he probably didn't even _want_ to talk to me. So basically, I was just making sure he didn't even waste time on me.

I was doing us both a favor.

**A.N: chapters are getting shorter! To think that I hate that… next one'll be longer. Promise. And this one isn't all that, I realize that... sorry.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. **

Chapter four

The next day was an actual Saturday and I was jumping out of joy inside my mind since this meant that I didn't even have to try to stand anyone except my father and mother and sister.

Until someone called my cell, of course.

"Hello?" I said in the receiver.

"Hey, Hina!" I heard Sakura's voice say in delight. "Me and the other girls were wondering if you wanted to come with us to the mall or something." She added with a questioning tone. "We're bored and can't think of anything else to do and since we wanted you to come, I said I'd call." She said in a pleading tone.

I didn't say anything for a while; then I smiled. "Sure. But one question: how did you get my number?" I asked with what I defined as a polite tone.

She laughed nervously, probably noting the threat in my voice. It was something very rare that someone noticed that. The only ones that ever had were Kiba, Neji, Hanabi, mother, Shino and father. "Neji gave it to me." She said with a smile clear in her voice.

"Oh." I said calmly. "When are we meeting up and where?" I asked, my mood going from threatening to kind and perky.

"The mall at four, kay?" she said with the same tone as before. When I answered with a 'yes' she said bye and we hang up before I looked at the clock on the living room wall.

Two o'clock. I could make it. I got dressed into some of my reduced numbered baggy pants and a T-shirt that I found in the depths of my dresser drawer.

I was caught by none other than my sister and she made me curl my hair since she had nothing better to do than to bug me for as long as she could. Though I admit I was surprised that she didn't have anyone to go out with. She may have been the new kid in school at her age, but she was known for how quickly she tended to make popular kids her friends. Why was this school any different?

When I got to the mall by taking about two buses, I saw Sakura and Tenten waiting for me and maybe Temari. I wasn't completely sure that she was coming.

"Hey, Hina." Sakura said seeing me. She looked sort of nervous for some reason and soon I saw what it was that was bothering her. A girl with black hair and thick glasses was behind her in a position that made it impossible for me to see her.

Karin turned and looked at me with a surprised expression, then a smirk. "New girl." She said in a teasing tone, the whole time a smirk was on her face.

I cocked my head to the side in fake confusion, like I didn't know who she was. "Oh!" I exclaimed hitting my right fist to my left palm. "You're that fan girl that's always around Sasuke!" I said staring at her with wide eyes.

Her smirk turned into a glare. She probably didn't like to be called fan girl, but that was what she was. I couldn't do much about it, now could I? "I'm not a fan girl." She said answering my suspicions.

I grinned. "He's my fiancée, therefore he's already taken, and so you don't have a chance and so you're just chasing him hopelessly, and he doesn't like you in _any_ way." I said trying my best to sound confident.

She glared at me. "Before you came, you little whore, me and him had something going on." She said with a smirk. "By the way, why are you hanging out with her, Sakura?" she asked the pink haired girl.

Tenten glared at the black haired girl. Apparently I wasn't the only one that didn't like her. Good for me.

"Because I like her. She's nice." Sakura answered flatly.

Karin looked at the three of us at turn and then shrugged. "Fine. You decide to hang out with a whore, do whatever you please." She said with an indifferent tone.

"She isn't a whore, Karin." I heard Temari's voice say behind us. "She's just as much a whore as you are an angel. One people can stand, anyway." She said with her arms crossed.

"What are you saying? People love me." Karin said cockily.

I scoffed. _Obviously_ she was in need of better glasses. And if what she said earlier was true, my father would soon find out and either not care, or get close to killing Sasuke. He'd done it before at some of my friends that were guys. It was really surprising actually. Normally he would have put up his stoic face at anything that had to do with me, but not when it came to guys.

And if he didn't do anything, I would be sure to. If it was true, of course.

Ino wasn't coming, as I was informed by the others, and so they dragged me to wherever they wanted to go. Karin completely ignored my existence, instead she just bugged a clearly annoyed Sakura and Tenten, while Temari just ignored her and tried to get me to say something, but I didn't know how to answer her questions and I didn't understand why.

"Karin?" I said at some point while she was looking through some really short dresses in some store I didn't know. I looked around us and saw no one listening to us. "Doesn't it feel like someone's watching us?" I asked her, thinking that she would have at least sensed that. I didn't know why I didn't ask my friends and instead asked her, but for some reason I did.

She turned to look at me surprised. Obviously she wasn't expecting me to tell her anything throughout the whole day. Maybe she had been hoping I wouldn't. Hell, I'd been hoping I wouldn't. Then she looked around us, very much like I did.

"Yeah." She said finally. She sounded uncomfortable, though I thought she was one of those people that liked attention. It was strange seeing her alert and tense.

I looked at her in a concerned manner and cocked my head to the side. "Are you okay?" I asked her. She looked weird with that worried look on her face.

She nodded, returning to she usual smirk she had and then turned around to look through the dresses again.

Suddenly, I took one and put it up against her. "This one." I said to her.

She looked at me confused.

"This one would look good on you and I honestly think that Sasuke would like it too." I said out of nowhere. Wasn't I supposed to hate her? I didn't get it. The dress was dark blue with silver running down the hem. It wasn't short, but it wasn't long either.

She took it from me, not taking her eyes off of me in the process, but then she looked down at the dress and smiled. Apparently she liked it. "Thanks." She said softly. "But don't think I'm letting go of Sasuke because you're being nice to me." She said probably to make sure I wasn't trying to do what she thought I was. But I wasn't, so there weren't any problems, really.

"I wasn't expecting you to. Don't worry about it." I said smiling warmly.

That's when we heard a scream and ran towards where it was coming from. It had sounded like Sakura's voice and I saw Tenten and Temari rushing also. When we got to where she was, we saw nothing to be worried about: it was Sasuke, Naruto, Gaara, Shikamaru, Ino and a seemingly annoyed Neji.

"Sakura, don't scare us like that!" Temari said with a small grin seeing one of the boys, though I didn't know which. She was looking at all of them one by one, so that wasn't really easy to find out.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, watching Sakura resist clinging to Sasuke, though I wouldn't mind if she did. I had to convince him not to marry me. Maybe tell him that we were too young; or get him a girlfriend like Karin or Sakura. It wasn't like I would mind for him to not marry me.

Nope, I definitely wouldn't.

Naruto shrugged. "We were bored, decided to go to the mall for lack of a better decision and decided to follow you guys because Sasuke was getting paranoid." He said grinning at Sakura like an idiot.

I rolled my eyes at his staring at Sakura and then I found myself looking at Karin and we both started laughing like on cue and I felt everyone's stares on the both of us.

So they were the ones we were getting worried about.

I stopped laughing eventually, then stood straight again and looked at the confused expressions on the others' faces. "Sorry." I ended up saying, still near laughing again. Karin was in my same state and I was wondering how I could have gotten her to be nicer to me or to even only _consider_ being my friend.

I took a few deep breaths, but I had difficulty stopping.

Only when my phone rang, I calmed my tone and spoke to whoever was on the other end.

"Hello?" I said in a polite manner.

"You sound cheerful." I heard the other person say. It was Kiba. I liked it that he continued calling me, because my parents wouldn't let me call anyone on my phone because it would cost too much.

Phst, yeah right.

"Kiba!" I said smiling. Then I walked away from the others, seeing that they would probably end up listening in on the conversation, and I didn't want that, so I went to the other side of the small shop. "Hey, how's it going?" I asked him smiling.

"Nothing since you left the place. Shino is being as introverted as ever and it's driving me crazy, at least you would try to listen to me. He doesn't even do that." He complained like a little kid.

I couldn't help but giggle.

"Well? Why were you happy earlier?" he asked with a grin in his voice.

Then I told him what happened in as little words as possible and with a low voice, because the store wasn't that big and the others could have easily heard me.

After about fifteen minutes of only talking, we hung up and I returned to the others.

Sasuke had his arms crossed and was frowning while Karin flirted with him, asking him what he thought of the dress I'd picked for her and doing other… things to him, and let's leave it at that. Then he looked at me with a pleading look on his face, but I only shrugged. That's what he got for yelling at me the second day I'd been at that city and trying to be nice to him! Tenten was drooling while staring at Neji and I saw his eye twitching, but not in a bad way. Sakura was standing near Sasuke, talking to Naruto and she smiled as soon as she saw me. Ino glared at me before watching the leader of the fan club do random things to my fiancée. Shikamaru was just watching the whole scene with a bored look and Temari was with Gaara, whom I had learned was her brother.

"You gonna buy the dress?" I asked Karin.

She smiled at me before nodding and walking off to the cashier.

"Be nicer to her." I said to Sasuke when I knew she couldn't hear me anymore. "And tell me the truth, do you like the dress?" I asked looking at him.

He just grunted and I giggled for absolutely no reason. Surprisingly, it was amusing to see him like that. He was staring at me confused and had his head cocked to the side. He looked like a little boy instead of the serious almost twenty year old person he usually made himself look like.

Karin came back up to us and we all left the store when she did.

"What do we do next?" Naruto asked Sakura.

She shrugged. "Dunno. What do you guys want to do?" she added looking at the others.

"Movie?" Ino said tentatively. It was the first time I'd heard her say something since we'd met up with them.

Neji just shrugged while the others said 'sure' and I smiled. Sasuke didn't say anything, but he grunted, which was a good thing I guess, because he could have just ignored her.

I soon found out that either the movie was boring, or I was tired and fell asleep in the theater on Sasuke's shoulder. He'd sat on the edge and made me sit next to him and away from Karin who was on the other side of Tenten that was next to Neji that was next to me. Sakura was next to Karin; Gaara was with Temari and Shikamaru in the row in front of us and Naruto was next to Sakura.

When I woke up, the movie just ended and we all got up with a little yawn coming from me, Neji and Sakura. Apparently, the movie had been boring.

We left the mall and I walked home with Naruto and Sasuke holding the bags of more clothes that the others had bought for me. I really didn't like abusing of their money, so I decided that when they asked, I would repay them as best I could. Anything they asked.

**A/N: again, tell me if you're not understanding something. ' I tend to put things in there that I can't remember after a couple days, so just tell me if it's getting too confusing.**


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter five

The next day was Sunday, so it was nothing extraordinary and I stayed home with my sister and my parents, trying to avoid my dad as much as possible and instead I ended up getting convinced by my sister to play any sort of odd game she could think of that I was willing to play.

At ten o'clock at night she got tired and fell asleep and I just couldn't sleep even though my mother had clearly told me to…

I just couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching me.

The previous day, I had thought immediately that it was the boys since they'd said that they'd been following us or whatever they called it. But today, there was no precise reason that I could think of. Why did I feel like this?

Monday I closed my window's blinds before getting dressed and then, when I left the house, I double checked that I had locked it. It was strange. Normally I wasn't like this. Something was _definitely_ wrong. I was sure of it.

That morning we didn't meet Sasuke and Naruto on the way to school, so Hanabi and I were on our own.

We didn't speak much. We never did; not if she didn't start the conversation, no one would. I wasn't a conversation starter; that was the simple reason why she always started discussions.

At school, I met up with Sakura and Temari and Tenten. Ino was staying away from the group by staying with the group of fan girls since she knew so many of them and Karin couldn't be seen talking to us because she had a _reputation_ to keep up.

Kurenai acted weird throughout the hour and then, Kakashi actually wasn't reading that strange orange book that he was reading the other days.

Orochimaru, on the other hand, seemed as happy as could be. I didn't get it. Why was he always the odd ball of the school? He even made us do a pop quiz and everyone except me gasped and I found out that he only did that when he was in an extremely good mood and that was near never.

It wasn't that hard, but I knew I got some of the answers wrong, though out of fifty, I had a feeling that I'd done it decently. Some even moaned because they were only on the fifth or something like that. I had done all of them and discovered that Sasuke did also. We were the only ones that did, of course. But I finished before him. Ha!

I gave Orochimaru my paper and he told me to go back to my desk and wait for the others to be done. The next to finish was Sasuke and then the bell rang. It was amusing to see the others moan instead of argue and slump in their chairs. Most of them did that. The others continued writing quickly trying to finish, but Orochimaru tore their papers from under their pens creating long lines at the end of the paper. Naruto was in the first group since I didn't see him as one to even try to finish when the bell rang.

I got up and left the classroom and walked to the next class in peace for once because no one was with me to annoy me.

After school, I waited for Hanabi as usual and she forced me to wait for Naruto and Sasuke. It was like she was addicted. I still didn't know what would have happened if they left before us or weren't at school, but I was supposing that she would have had a heart attack.

So I asked her.

"Why do you insist on waiting for those two?" I said to her curiously.

She shrugged. "Don't know. I just feel like it. Naruto actually starts conversations and Sasuke is your fiancée, might I remind you." She looked at me at the last part of the conversation. "Stay weary of the cheerleaders, though. I heard them talking about killing you in your sleep since they know you live with me and know where I live."

I sweat dropped at this. Were they really acting that dramatically? Sheesh. They sounded like Karin… well, they probably were Karin wannabes. I'd noticed that many girls in the school were Karin wannabes for some reason I had yet to comprehend.

When Naruto and Sasuke got out of the building, Hanabi and I started walking to our houses with them.

When we arrived at our house, however, we were met by a very rushed father that told Hanabi and I to get in the car, which we obviously did without hesitation and not bothering to say bye to Naruto or Sasuke who just stood where they were while father rushed away and through many streets at too much of a fast pace, I was sure, but if he deemed it necessary, then it wasn't my place to argue. I was smarter than that.

"What's the matter oto-san?" Hanabi asked him concerned.

He didn't say anything for a second, then said: "Your mother's in the hospital after being in a car crash and she's severely wounded." He said in a matter of fact tone.

I paled and my eyes widened. Mother? Crash? Hospital? The words didn't fit together. Mom was the most careful person I knew even though she didn't show it much.

Now I _wanted_ father to hurry up.

When we got to the hospital, father asked for mom's room number, but they said she couldn't have any visitors. None. Absolutely none.

What happened to her?

Father went to talk with one of the nurses and something made his eyes widen much like mine had earlier in the car, then his eyes turned glassy and he told us to follow him to the car. We were going back to the house.

He never cried in front of us and he certainly wasn't going to start now.

The next day I found out that mother had died due to a head concussion and I cried my eyes out that morning before going to school where I wasn't present mentally or emotionally, just physically. I'm sure no one failed to notice this seen as though I was often distracted and the teachers had to repeat questions more times before I was able to answer.

I saw Sakura and the others looking at me worriedly, but I would never answer their question if it was the typical 'what's wrong?' they didn't need to know. I didn't want to be a burden on them.

Neji, of course, knew what had happened and didn't ask me about it because he knew I would just fake another smile and he told me a long time ago that he didn't like my smiles if they weren't sincere, but I couldn't do anything about it. I found out I couldn't smile since father had told me about mom and I couldn't tell anyone because I didn't want to annoy them with my problems.

At the end of school, I walked home without waiting for anyone, but I found Itachi walking home also and I walked behind him.

Once at home I absently did my homework surely messing up a lot of things, then I laid down on my bed staring at the ceiling.

I felt tears in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall because I didn't want anyone to think I was pathetic, as my father already thought I was.

"Hello?" I said in my cell phone when it rang. My voice was trembling and I just now realized the tears had been falling down my cheeks, though I hadn't realized it.

There was a small pause before: "Hinata, what's wrong?" Kiba's voice said on the other end of the phone.

That was when I started sobbing audibly without any control over my body. It was always like this: the only people I had ever been able to share any emotion with were Kiba and Shino, my two best friends in the other school.

When a good ten minutes had passed and he hadn't said anything, waiting for me to say something, I finally choked: "Mom… mom is… mom… mom died." I said quietly. I was starting to cry again and he didn't say anything to make me stop.

After hours, we got off the phone and I already felt better. Sure, Kiba hadn't said anything too comforting, but he'd tried.

"Hinata?" Hanabi said from the other side of the door to my bedroom.

"Mm?" I said in response.

She didn't say anything for a while and then she said: "Can I come in?" she opened the unlocked door slightly and stood there, waiting for me to say something.

"Sure." I said with a bored tone.

She entered and sat on the edge of the bed. "Everyone wants to know if you're okay. They are really worried about you. I don't think it would be a bad idea to tell them." She said with pity clear in her voice. "Sakura especially was worried. She said you hadn't spoken to her and was afraid something had happened to you."

I stared at her blankly. I had spoken to them, just not as much as usual.

And… was she trying to lecture me?

"And…?" I said bored, not letting the anger through to her with neither my tone of voice nor my facial expression.

"Give them a chance." She said simply.

I glared at her. Some people didn't notice that I was glaring because my facial expression didn't change much; if anything it actually looked cuter than when I watched people normally for some. But who did notice knew that I was about to explode and Hanabi quickly jumped up and left the room before I could do anything.

'Bitch thinks she can tell me what to do.' I thought still glaring at the door.

**A/N: I'm stopping this chapter here… I don't know what to write. In fact: I'm not satisfied with this chapter. I just wrote the first thing that came to mind. **

**Help me, please. '(**


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter six

On Wednesday, I went to school as usual, without complaining and left the house way too early for my sister, but I wasn't going to let her experiment with my face and left wearing the clothes I normally wore before coming to this city – a baggy pair of jeans and a way-too-big-for-me shirt. Then I had put my hair in a messy braid and put on my long forgotten glasses that my sister had forbid me from wearing a long time ago in public and 'public', for her, meant 'at home' also. I would never understand that one.

At school everyone stared at me probably either not recognizing me, or wondering why I was wearing these clothes.

"'Nata!" I heard Sakura yell over to me.

I looked up and saw her walking up to me. She was trying her best to smile, but it was clearly a fake.

"What?" I said harshly.

She looked at me shocked for a moment; then she looked hurt. "Why are you like that?" she asked with an unexpectedly small voice.

I stared at her for a while before she turned harshly and left me standing there alone.

Not like it mattered to me, though. The less 'friends' I had the better. I wanted to be invisible again. I had felt safer when I was invisible and I wanted to go back to those days.

Fat chance that was going to happen.

"What are you wearing?" Karin said once she was in front of me with her hands on her hips and a rather harsh glare directed at me.

"Normal clothes." I said looking her in the eye.

She shook her head. "No." she said staring at me. "I will not accept that my 'competition' is dressed like that." She said looking me up and down. "Come on. Thank god I bring changes of clothes for emergencies." She started walking towards the school, but I, of course, did not follow.

Of course, five seconds later I was being dragged by Karin to go wherever she wanted to go and I was really annoyed at that point: why the fuck did she care how I was dressed? I failed to answer this question in my head and stared at whoever stared at me.

"Here." She said handing me a form fitting t-shirt and a skirt that was too short for me to be comfortable with, but a lot of these sorts of things were being given to me recently. "You can keep the glasses, but I want to redo your braid. That's okay, right?" she said before taking the band that was keeping my braid in place and then told me to get dressed before she started with my hair or else it would have ruined the 'do'.

I VERY reluctantly got undressed and redressed and then she started putting my hair in a high pony tail and got some clips from her purse and I sweat dropped thinking about how much stuff she could possibly have in that tiny purse. She put the clips in my hair to get my bangs out of my face and when she was done she smiled at me. "Much better." She said with a satisfied smile on her face.

I just glared at her. She was kidding, right? It was already enough that I was forced to wear things like this before, now, when I didn't want to be 'seen' or anything of the sort; she just had to act like Hanabi. I hated my life.

She threw away the clothes I was wearing before and dragged me out of the bathroom and to music class that we just happened to have together. How ironic.

Sakura just stared at me while Karin dragged me to my desk and I could have sworn that she scowled at either me or Karin, I didn't know which, but now wasn't the time to think about that because our professor had entered the classroom and it didn't look like she was in a very good mood.

The whole morning up to lunch was quiet on the students' part, that was really odd, and I suspected it had something to do with the teachers' uneasiness or if it was just something that occasionally happened… I found the second option highly unlikely, but it was still an option, ne?

During lunch, I sat with my cousin (as I usually did) and everyone else – Sakura, Naruto, Temari, Ino, Shikamaru, Sai and Sasuke… how could I forget about him? – but I found Tenten wasn't there for some reason and Sakura avoided eye contact with me.

"Fine." I said putting the plastic fork that I had down. I looked at Sakura and I felt my eyes pathetically fill with tears. "If you really want to know why I've been how I have I'll tell you."

Everyone's eyes were on me, even Sakura's.

Neji looked at me worriedly. "You don't have to tell them." He whispered to me so that no one else could hear him.

I shook my head and turned to him. "I have to." Then I looked Sakura directly in the eye and I saw her slightly flinch. She seemed to be offended because I wouldn't confide in them, so I was going to direct this news at her before the others. "My m-m-mom… d… d-di-die-died…" I said, my tears starting to fall from my eyes.

Sai, Sasuke, Neji and Shikamaru were the only ones that didn't gasp when I was done talking.

Sakura's eyes widened and she looked down with a look of what I was guessing was shame. She probably thought it was her fault that I felt obligated to tell them, and it sort of was, but I wasn't giving all the blame to her.

"Hinata." Neji said putting a hand on my shoulder and looking at me with a semi curious, semi concerned expression on his face.

I shook his hand off my shoulder and got up. "Well, I'm done. See you later." I said forcing a smile on my face and forcing the tears to stop falling down my cheeks.

Then I left them there and threw away what was left of the school's disgusting food on my tray before walking out of the cafeteria and to my locker that was at the other side of the school, almost. And I thanked god for that.

'Stop crying!' I yelled in my mind. 'You're so pathetic.' I thought. 'Father's right.'

Then I got my books for the next three periods and put them in my bag before heading to science and Orochimaru's classroom getting mentally prepared for the strange professor.

Thank god he didn't mind if we changed places every day, because I certainly didn't want to sit next to my fiancée or his best friend. Nope, not today.

The lesson went on without me paying much attention from the back of the room where I had positioned myself in place of some girl that had sit next to Sasuke and today I didn't try to get my place back because I didn't want to deal with her for once. Her name was Monoki and she was annoying; you have no idea! She was, of course, one of Sasuke's many fan girls and probably the most annoying one of them all, and that meant that she was very annoying.

I'd seen Sasuke glance at me every now and then, but I never looked back noticeably.

At the end of the class, I rushed out of the classroom before anyone could catch up to me and after the last period, I had theater.

During theater, I tried to stay as far away from the others as possible, but…

"Hinata." Sasuke's voice said from behind me when I was watching some scene that Anko had made a pair of boys do. It was clearly a fighting scene.

I turned and looked at him dully. "What do you want?" I said in a flat tone.

"You don't have to avoid us all the time, you know." He said uncharacteristically saying more than just a few syllables at once. I was amazed he could manage that. "Everyone's worried about why you're avoiding them." He added looking me straight in the eye.

I stared at him for a while before I decided to answer him. "I know. Nevertheless, aren't you annoyed by my presence? It's etched on each of your faces." I said bluntly.

He looked offended. "No." he said simply.

"Hinata, Sasuke." Anko said from where she was. "Please be quiet." She said uncharacteristically being polite. I certainly was surprised. "Either that or you change places with these two." Okay. For a moment there, I thought she was sick.

"No need." I said forcing a smile on my face.

She turned back to the other two and started shouting at them about how to perfect themselves in the 'Art of Acting' as I was going to start calling it because I felt like it.

After theater, Anko handed us some scripts and I was sincerely surprised she could come up with them in only a few days.

I smiled at her before walking out of the school gym where she had had us come that day and managed to let Sasuke catch up to me before walking back to our houses.

"Why didn't you tell her before?" Sasuke asked me curiously. He was clearly referring to Sakura, but it didn't matter.

"I didn't want to be a pain and look like I depended on you too much." I said in a matter of fact tone. "That's what always happens, right?" I said looking straight in front of me. "The new girl tries to make friends, but they just think of her as a weak and puny insect that after one day, they will break with ease." I spoke out of experience and my tone didn't let through the anger I was feeling or the helplessness.

He didn't say anything after that and I murmured a small 'good-bye' to him before walking up to my house door and entering with my new keys.

When I was inside, though, my father was packing and forcing Hanabi to do the same.

"What…?" I started watching my father walk around the house.

"We're leaving. You're staying." My father said. "Work." He allowed as an explanation, but nothing more came from his mouth.

I stared at the two blankly.

"I've already discussed this with the Uchihas and they're looking forward to your moving in with them." He added after a second of thinking.

"Oh, so you arrange the marriage between me and some boy I don't even know and just leave before we start planning it out?!" Now, I was sure, I was completely loosing it, but it didn't matter. "How the _hell _could you call yourself a _father_?" I screeched like a banshee. I was pretty sure that the Uchihas could hear me also and were wondering what the _Hyuuga_ girl was doing and why.

"It's im…" he started before I interrupted him yet again.

"Oh! Now it makes _complete_ sense!" I said my voice just _oozing_ with sarcasm. "It's _important_! How could I have forgotten that excuse? That's what you always told mother, but this time it's just because you can't stand the fact that she isn't here anymore and she won't come back ever again." I said glaring at him.

… Was that fear I saw in his eyes? Wow. I must have looked really scary if he was giving me the same treatment that he gave mom when she used to be mad. It was like flames were growing in the background behind her and she tended to start cursing a lot and she could have made anybody go deaf if she screamed high enough.

"Hinata…" he trailed off.

I stared at him with my arms crossed and one leg moved to the side, waiting for an explanation.

He didn't say anything and instead just walked out of the house with Hanabi following him, practically crying. That was strange: she never cried when we had to leave the other cities.

Then she hugged me tightly and whispered a small 'goodbye' before leaving me standing there, stunned. _That_ was why she was crying? God, I hated my father right then, but I didn't say anything more as I watched them leave with the car me and mom had come here with.

I walked inside the personless house and closed the door silently behind me.

So I had to go live with the Uchihas, huh? Great, just great.

I got everything I owned in the dark purple suitcase I had brought with me here… but soon found out that not everything could fit, so I was forced to use some plastic bags because my school bag was already almost dead because of all the school books in it.

I exited the house with everything I had and walked over to the house next to the one that used to be mine.

I knocked on the door and Mikoto greeted me with a smile and yelled to Sasuke and Naruto to get my things.

Wow. I guess I was going to be like some privileged guest and I would eventually found out that it was just like that.

"Hi." I said to her smiling. She seemed really nice and I already liked her for no apparent reason… okay: maybe it was because she was Sasuke's complete opposite… I didn't understand how she could be related to him in any way… it just didn't make sense to me.

Their house was just as big, if not bigger, than the one next to it that I would never return to. Not that I wanted to, anyway.

Mikoto was wearing a simple sweatshirt and sweatpants still managing to look beautiful without any makeup on and tangled hair.

She was sick. I didn't know how I knew, I just did.

"You shouldn't be up." I said, mother-like instincts taking over. I put my hand on her forehead. "You're burning." I said in a scolding tone.

She stared at me in an odd manner as did Sasuke and Naruto that had just arrived. I just glared at the two boys. "How could you let her walk around like this? She's at least got a 38.6 degrees Celsius fever." I said in the same scolding tone as before with her. God. What was wrong with me?

The boys backed away slowly with the bags still in their hands without taking their eyes off of me. Their scared faces were pretty amusing, though, I had to admit.

I bowed when I saw Fugaku Uchiha, Sasuke's father, and I muttered a small 'good afternoon' before returning to his wife.

"You should rest for today." I said in a pensive manner.

Mikoto just smiled knowingly at me and complied to my 'suggestion.'


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter seven

About a week had passed since I had moved in with the Uchihas and I'd started getting accustomed to them and their lifestyles. They were so unlike the Hyuugas, it was surprising that they had been able to work the whole engagement without killing each other, but I was told that Fugaku and Hiashi were actually _friends_. It was surprising, but so was the fact that Sasuke and Naruto were such close friends. They were more like siblings than Itachi and Sasuke certainly were.

I'd been receiving calls from Hanabi every day, she'd talk for hours and I'd say something every now and then before she started talking about. Whenever she started mothering me, I'd cut her off and change subject. I hadn't been eating much, but I was eating the small amount that suggested I was still healthy.

Mikoto Uchiha was the nicest of the household. Though sometimes I thought she was trying to mother me like Hanabi tended to do unconsciously, I didn't get angry over it. It had been a week, three days since mother had died, and yes, I'd been counting the days.

On Sunday morning, I got my drawing pad, finding nothing better to do, and started drawing much like when I had moved to the house next door that had recently been bought by some couple with their parents and two kids. Twins. They were annoying most of the time, but amusing, nonetheless.

Oh yeah. We'd made brownies for them! It was fun; I had to admit. The kitchen was a mess after, but we'd managed to clean it in half hour somehow.

Mr. Uchiha had turned the T.V on to watch… NASCAR… and I soon noticed everyone else gathering around the T.V and so _me_ since I was in the same room and it was fairly annoying.

Naruto was breathing down my neck though but when I tried leaning away from him, I bumped into Sasuke and when I went back to my original position, I pushed Naruto away from me.

Mikoto and Fugaku were bickering on who would win the race and I instantly regretted not going into my room to draw.

This wasn't the first time this happened… the first time was the second day I was there. They were fighting over something that sounded vaguely like dominance over the remote when Sasuke had taken it from the coffee table where it still was and that tended to happen almost everyday, I'd noticed. The only thing that changed was the third person that ended up taking the remote.

I got the pastels I'd taken from my bag in my room along with my drawing pad and I literally watched while my hands moved on their own.

"You okay?" Sasuke's voice said from next to me.

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that Sasuke had actually been acting much nicer to me since I moved in and what was strange was that it wasn't only at the house where he had to because of his parents. The development was also visible at school and sometimes I would see people staring at us when we walked back home on our own because Naruto was busy or just when we talked in school. I would receive intense glares from girls that were surely in his fan club. Karin had let go of Sasuke in just a few days, which was pretty shocking for me, but she then targeted my cousin. The poor boy was in for a life of torture.

I had to blink a couple times to realize that I hadn't been seeing much of anything other than my hands. The drawing was some strange landscape that he seemed alarmed by.

I nodded and put the drawing pad down on the coffee table and I got my cell phone as it rang and answered.

"Hinata!" Sakura's voice squeaked and I cringed slightly while walking out of the living room and to my room.

"Sakura!" I said trying my best to sound as if she hadn't just about made me go deaf.

I could just see her grinning knowing that she'd done just that. "So me and the girls were wondering if we could come over to your house." She giggled at the end.

I tilted my head. She was kidding, right? She knew I now lived with the Uchihas.

"Why?" I said cautiously.

"We've never been to Sasuke-kun's house." She said with a small pouting voice. "And we wanted to go through his stuff." She paused shortly knowing my answer was going to be negative. "Oh come on! You know you want to also!" she said with a rather stubborn tone.

I stared blankly ahead of me and then said something completely irrelevant: "Did you know that Sasuke's birthday was in July? Which has already passed… and so that whole two months thing was just a bunch of crud." I said in a distracted tone.

She didn't say anything for a while and then she sighed. "Can we _please_ come over?" she said avoiding the question, so I assumed she had already known.

I sighed in defeat. "Fine." I said. "But be careful of Sasuke when you come. I'm pretty sure he'll watch you the whole time you're here." I said bluntly.

Se squealed and thanked me before saying something like 'I can stay over right? Thanks!' and then hung up without my answering her last statement.

"Mikoto!" I called out to her. "Is it okay if some friends come over tonight to say the night?" I asked her knowing she was too distracted to say no.

"Sure." She said still watching the race. She had apparently got up to get popcorn because she was hunched over a bowl of it now.

Sasuke looked alarmed and bolted to his feet and walked quickly to his bedroom… how had I been able to foresee this? Oh, yeah: this was Uchiha Sasuke. What did you expect?

"Sasuke." I called from the other side of the closed and, I expected, locked door.

"No." he said in an unusual whiny voice. "Those freaks are going to come in here and attempt to go through my things."

"Yeah, but not until tonight." I said leaning on my right shoulder on the wall next to the door. "And you should let us… know why?" I said reaching for the doorknob with my left hand. I turned it and discovered that it wasn't locked and entered. "You _lied_ to me for starters." I said watching the sulking figure of Sasuke Uchiha on his bed, glaring at me.

"Talk to Fugaku on that one, he told me to do that. So I wasn't the one lying." He said still glaring.

"Why are you so afraid?" I asked. "I actually thought that 'Sasuke' and 'afraid' would have never been used in a sentence." I said with a finger on my lip, my head tilted up in a falsely curious manner. "Guess I just did, though." I tilted my head over at him and grinned. Then I giggled and left the room. His ego had been completely trashed just by that simple comment and I knew it.

Then I just had to return to his room and saw him still glaring at me. "And why are you still living with your parents at twenty?" I asked. "Your brother I can understand because he's going to inherit the business, so he has to stay with your father as long as possible to know how to work the place and then inherit the house and everything. But you're the second born." I said.

He smirked at this for some reason. "My brother won't be the one to inherit the business." He said deigning me of a glance. I was _honored_. "I will." He said still smirking. "Itachi refused the post and I wasn't given the chance to do otherwise."

"Then shouldn't you go to work with your father?" I asked him.

He looked at me as if I were stupid.

Then I hit my head. "Oh, right. School, right?" I said glaring at him. When I left the room this time, I slammed the door behind me and it made an _echo_. I was serious. An echo. That was just weird.

Proved me how poor my dad was.

That night came and Sakura was in my room along with Temari, Tenten, Ino, who I'd recently regained as my friend, and Karin. They looked ready to rob a bank.

Sasuke had been downstairs watching T.V until then just to prove how _not_ afraid he was. He was such a coward.

"Just let me go check on Sasuke before you start, okay?" I asked almost desperately.

They stared at me like Sasuke had before when I asked my next to last question, but they let me anyway.

I went down the stairs and into the living room where I saw a really peeved Sasuke under a dark blue blanket on his side, watching the T.V while mumbling curse words about Sakura and the others.

"You're not going to say something bad about me?" I said faking a pouting tone. "I mean, I am going in with them." I added walking up to the couch and looking at him from over the back of the couch. He stared at me while I moved some of my hair behind my shoulder and I watched him, kind of freaked out. I wasn't used to people watching me like that. "Could you stop that?" I said uneasily.

He blinked, suddenly realizing that he was staring at me, I guessed, and looked away… blushing. Oh, god knew I wasn't going to let him live this one down.

"Go away." He said turning back to the T.V and ignoring me.

I walked out of the room mumbling a soft 'good night', turning off the light and closing the door like I used to do to Hanabi. Only, I wasn't going to kiss Sasuke. Not even on the cheek. For now, anyway.

I found the other girls giggling in the hallway just outside the living room door and I felt my face turn from pink to scarlet and I stared at them wide eyed.

"Wasn't Neji against you living here?" Ino suddenly said in a pensive manner.

I nodded. He'd thrown a fit when he'd known that I was living with the Uchiha. It had been quite amusing to watch him lecture Sasuke on how to: not do anything inappropriate to me or he'd come over and stab a dagger through his heart and other random stuff that he felt he needed to say as he felt an excessive protectiveness towards me.

"Whatever!" Karin said not caring. "Let's go trash his room." She said. She seemed to be pretty excited about the whole situation. I could only imagine what they could do to that poor room.

I sweat dropped when they all ran to the room across from mine leaving a literal dust cloud in their place. I'd already been in the room millions of times when I confronted my fiancée, but now that I thought about it, I had never gone through his things though I had had about a million opportunities and suddenly, I felt interested.

I would have followed anyway, but I noticed a certain velocity in my walking. I watched as the girls threw things out of the drawers and I noticed a blond haired boy in the room also and sighed.

"Ooohhh!" Karin said grinning while holding something in her hand. They'd already gone through his underwear drawer, which had only boxers, thank god for him. I would have bugged the crap out of him if not. Either me or Naruto, I was sure. The others wouldn't allow themselves to stoop down to such levels… as they said. "Lookie here, Hina!" she said showing me a small box that looked big enough to fit a ring in.

The girls squealed and I figured Fugaku was about to stomp in here and demand that we stop, but he didn't. Strange. Mikoto was probably holding him back or something.

However, this happened instead:

Sasuke marched into the room and I saw veins pulsing, almost exploding, on his forehead. He glared at everyone in the room, though he seemed pretty confused as to why Naruto was in the room, but he still glared nonetheless.

"Get. Out." He said harshly. "And take it." He said referring to the small box. "I would have had to give it to you anyway." He said looking at me, his glare softening a small fraction of a second, but it was gone when he looked at the others again.

The others ran out, while I took my time. "I guess you withstood it for a while." I paused, waiting for him to look at me. "I'm surprised. Not even Neji would have lasted that long, though." He still wasn't looking at me. I guess I'd just have to say it even if he wasn't looking at me. "I'm actually, sort of… proud?" I said just before leaving the room, closing the door, gently, behind me. Then I went to my room and saw all the girls around the small box that was now open and staring at it in awe.

I looked at it over Karin and stopped moving.

It was a ring. A beautiful one at that. Ice blue diamonds, the same shade as my birthstone, formed five small petals of a blue flower. It rested upon a thin white golden ring.

I gasped and took it slowly. Very, very, slowly, before taking it out of the box and putting on my left ring finger. That's when I remembered that half a month had passed since I'd been told I'd marry Sasuke and realized that I only had another month and a half of being engaged.

Sakura smiled at me. "Get up, go in his room and at least thank him." She said with an all-knowing grin, though I didn't get just _what_ she knew. "And then kiss him." She added with a different grin. "On the lips."

I stared at her blankly. She was kidding, I was sure… or maybe she wasn't.

I was too late on this thought because she was already pushing me out of my own room. "We'll know if you didn't. So don't even thing about it." She said in a warning tone.

I glared at her until she closed the door and my jaw hung open. What the heck was I supposed to do?

Then I turned towards the door behind me and gave it a little knock before just barging in, knowing the door wasn't locked. Moreover, even if it was, I would have been able to undo it.

He was on his stomach on his bed and he turned his head when he heard the door open.

"Thanks." I managed. He didn't say anything while I walked over slowly and kneeled down next to the bed. "Sorry, but they won't stop annoying me if I don't do this." I said apologetically to him. "You'd be making this so much easier if you got up, you know?" I said forcing a smile.

Why was I so nervous?

I watched him get up obediently without saying a word and then I lightly kissed him where I was ordered to. Then I jumped back up and left a very confused looking Sasuke alone in his room.

Meanwhile, my face had turned scarlet and I was returning to my room.

Why had I just done that? Moreover, why was I grinning?

Okay, before I stepped foot in that place, I had to get the grin off my face. Once step one was done, I turned the knob to get in the room and I opened the door and then, and only then, I entered the room.

They all looked at me when I entered the room.

"Well, you certainly look embarrassed." Temari said seeing my scarlet face. "But I'll bet you won the boy of every girl's dreams over." She said with a grin.

I didn't say anything, just sat on my bed and stared up with my head slightly tilted backwards.

"And vice versa." Sakura said smirking.

Now I became even redder, if possible, and I heard everyone giggling.

"Come on, calm down." Tenten said smiling. "Thank god we don't have school tomorrow." She said clapping her hands gently as to not awake the now sleeping Naruto and… Itachi. I didn't know if he actually slept at all because every night, whenever I looked at his door, either I saw light in that small crack that was between the bottom of the door and the floor, or he wasn't at home.

"I know." Temari said cheerfully.

**A/N: well, this was random. R&R and critiques welcome. Thnx. **


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter eight

We stayed up the whole night just talking, and someone took my theatre script and they played 'acting' when they were extremely bored. At around five thirty a.m., we saw the adults leave the house. Fugaku looked at us all as if we were crazy for being up so late in the night. We were in our pajamas and some of us were in the typical position on the bed with the pillow in our arms and either on it or on our backs with our head upside down.

We all giggled when he was away from the room and continued talking.

It was seven a.m. when we went to sleep, some of us on the bed, the others on the floor with blankets that we'd found in the closet.

When I woke up, I avoided contact with the 'peacefully' sleeping girls and left the room suddenly realizing I still had the ring on my finger. I went in a panic trying to find out if something was missing from it, but it was fine and I sighed.

"'Bout time." Sasuke said looking at me. "You didn't let me sleep, then you were asleep until now and it's precisely…" he looked at the clock in the kitchen. "2.00 p.m."

I gaped. "Already?" I said, my eyes bulging.

He nodded. "Yep." He sipped his tea and I stared at him blankly. "Kitchen." He said referring to the tea and the fact that it was in the kitchen if I wanted it, but I still stood there. I think I was drooling because he sighed and turned into the kitchen and seconds later was back out with a big mug that I had recently claimed as mine and gave it to me full of herbal tea.

I smiled as I smelled it. "Thank you." I said before taking a sip and walking to the living room, not noticing I was still in my pajamas. So when I had _finally_ noticed the presence of other people in said room I felt my face go red instantly when I saw Gaara, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Chouji and Suigetsu just… staring at me. I didn't mind Neji or Naruto, but with the others, it was just awkward.

"You're just _asking_ to get into awkward situations, aren't you?" Sasuke said from the doorway with a smirk on his face. "I was about to tell you the others were here, but you just walked off."

I just stared blankly at him before I sat down on the one person couch, hiding my blush with my mug. The odor emanating from the tea calmed me down and the blush went away mostly.

Suddenly, my left hand was snatched away from the mug and I screamed as it fell to the ground and broke with a loud _CRACK_.

I glared at Neji who was currently inspecting the ring and slowly he looked up at me, expecting to be the one to take over the argument. Not in this lifetime, pretty boy.

"MY MUG!" I screamed. "You broke my _mug_!" I added with the same tone of voice. Neji looked scared and if his dignity didn't keep him from it, he'd be shaking from the terror.

"Uh, oh." Naruto said as if he were still in kindergarten.

I looked at him. "You're next." I said punching the boy that had dropped my arm. Neji flew to the other side of the room and I took a step closer to the couch the boys were on and the ones that weren't the person I was advancing on, aka Naruto, were distancing themselves from the blond who looked just as terrified as Neji had.

I heard footsteps coming from upstairs and suddenly, Sakura and the others were on the frame watching the scene, probably wondering why I was freaking out over a mug. But I did that. That was me.

Naruto was punched because he made fun of me, nothing more. It was like Sakura's dare last night, only I was hitting the one that had laughed at me; not daring them to do something embarrassing.

All the other boys backed away from me as I went back to the broken mug on the ground. "Now it's gonna stain the carpet." I whined.

I was pretty sure I heard everyone fall, even the ones that were on the couch. In fact, when I turned, I saw everyone on the floor with a huge sweat drop forming on their foreheads.

Sasuke was smiling, though. And it made him look even better than how he always was. He looked more mature like that. I noticed he was the only one that hadn't fallen.

Karin got up slowly. "Is that what you cared about?" she asked incredulous.

I nodded. "Well, he broke my mug. No one breaks my mug. If you do, expect that treatment; no matter _who_ you are." I said, my eyes narrowing a bit. "And now it's gonna stain! And I'll be at fault." I added looking down at the puddle of tea that was on the floor. I looked up at Sasuke pleadingly and he left for a few moments. In these few moments, the room was completely silent and still, and when Sasuke reentered the room, he had another mug of tea in his hand and a wet rag.

"Merci." I said taking both and handing the rag to the blond haired boy that everyone knows as Naruto. Then I sat back on the couch and put my legs on the arm rest so that I was sitting across the small couch and I watched Naruto scrub the floor with amusement, I was sure.

"Hinata?" I heard Sakura's voice say behind me.

I turned my head curiously while taking a sip of tea.

"Aren't we supposed to go to the mall?" she said as the other girls had an epiphany and left the living room to get changed.

I looked at her and then remembered. "Oh, yeah." I said getting up awkwardly from the small couch since I couldn't get off like a normal person because Naruto was there. "Buh-bye." I said smiling and waving with my free hand at the other boys.

They just smiled awkwardly and mumbled something incoherent in response.

"Come on, I've got your outfit already picked out." Sakura said walking with me to my room where I was sure everyone was doing their makeup.

Of course, that's where they were. Everyone was either in front of a mirror or another girl was doing their makeup for them or doing their hair.

Sakura handed me a baby blue shirt that reached mid thigh and an indigo skirt that reached my knee. Then she put my hair in a messy bun leaving some strands of hair to frame my face and then she put clips in my hair to keep the bangs back. This before she put make up on me.

"Okay." She said with a small smile on her face.

I still had the mug of tea in my hands when she was done and decided to go to the living room where everyone else was talking.

"We're leaving!" Sakura called at the other girls that were flirting with their own selection of boy or boys. Sakura seemed pretty unnerved by this and called them before they did something stupid, of course. I would have done the same thing.

All the girls except one got up and said a small 'bye' to the boys. All except _one_, remember that.

Ino was still in there _flirting_ with Sasuke.

"Ino." I said warningly. I was glaring at her with all the hate I could gather, being me, that wasn't much for some reason.

Everyone turned to see me and I saw the literal _plea_ in Sasuke's eyes that plead to get the blonde off of him.

At this, I couldn't help myself: I smiled. I walked to the couch and put my elbows on the back of it and waited with my fingers entwined and my chin on them for her to notice me.

When she did, she jumped and left without saying another word.

"Buh-bye." I said with a curt wave. I left the room and walked out of the house to meet the other girls at the end of the sidewalk.

When we started walking in the direction I usually went to go to school, I saw the twins walking out of the house with a little friend of theirs and smiled their way.

They saw me almost immediately and ran up to us. I had to stop and the others stopped to watch curiously.

"Nee-san!" the girl, Keiko, said running up to me and hugging my knees. The twins were about seven from their appearances, so I took them to be five years old. I'd never really asked.

"Kei-chan." I said patting her head since I couldn't bend down and hug her back. "Where are you guys goin'?" I asked smiling at her brother, Keigo. He was watching his sister disapprovingly, but his expression changed when he looked up at me, seeing I was looking straight at him.

"Nowhere." He said looking down at the ground as he usually did when speaking to me. It was actually kind of cute.

"Who're you?" the unknown boy said looking at me directly in the eyes. The intensity of the stare startled me and just then, Keiko let go of me and smiled brightly. If we were in a cartoon, I was sure her teeth would have shined.

"He's our cousin!" she said with that creepy smile still on her face.

I eyed him carefully, but didn't see much resemblance to the twins. The twins both had blond hair and the classic blue eyes while the stray boy had black hair and eyes. He looked somewhat like Sasuke, actually. He even had the same stare.

"Do you know Sasuke Uchiha?" Sakura voiced my question from behind me.

His eyes widened. If he knew him? I had a feeling this kid was a major wannabe Sasuke. "Of course I know him!" he almost sounded offended. "Who wouldn't?"

"Oh, hush." Keiko said in a scolding manner. "We all know you have a crush on Sasuke." She said. "You really should try to make your own style." She said carelessly.

I looked at the boy and noticed the exact same things that Sasuke had on that day on the boy and smirked. "Did you know that I could have him meet you?" I said trying to get on the boy's good side. It was always a pain having little kids against you. "I live with him."

The boy's eyes widened slightly, then his face went into stoic mode. "Fine." He said in a careless tone of voice.

"Okay. Be here tomorrow at… seven forty five a.m." I said so that he could be there when we passed the house in the morning. "Okay?" I said smiling.

He looked to the right for a second, thinking. Hmm, I had the same habit. Strange.

"I can't." he said finally. "I have to see him now." He added with the same emotionless face from before. "Or never." He said grimly.

"What do you mean?" the 'or never' threw me off _big_ time.

He shook his head. "Nothing. See ya." He said waving as he left with Keigo.

Keiko stayed with me and tugged on my shirt. "He's just dramatic, don't worry about it. He just has to go back home this evening with his parents." She said with a small smile on her face. She was really _cute_. I couldn't help but think like that. She was too cute for her own good, actually. "Bye." She said following Keigo and the boy.

… I just then realized I didn't get the boy's name… oh well. I'd have to live.

"Let's go." I said to the others who nodded and I immediately dismissed the strange behavior of the boy with black hair and walked with them to the closest bus stop and then we took a bus to the mall and… shopped, duh.

After hours they seemed to be done and I had about five bags in my hands, all full of clothes that the girls thought were simply _necessary_ so I could fill in the empty space in my closet and because it was almost autumn and 'I couldn't go out with summer clothes all year 'round', right?

When we were walking back to the house so that they could get their things, wait for their parents and leave my house, we met the twins with that strange kid again. This time, they paid no attention to me and let me pass peacefully.

When we were in the house, I noticed that no one was in it, not even Itachi. Sure, I hadn't expected him to be here, but I didn't know if it was just because he was drunk again or if it was on purpose that he wasn't at home today. Then there was Sasuke and Naruto, but they were probably somewhere in the city with the other boys probably playing on game cube or something.

Fugaku and Mikoto. They should have been home already, though. It was almost eight in the evening and they weren't there. It wasn't something I would have called normal: the Uchihas had a tendency to be punctual or precise all the time.

But then I heard a scream in the house, on the other side of it and I ran towards the noise, fearing the worst.

**A/N: grr… I just wrote this on the first try, I'm not going through it again because I'm sure I'd just change the whole thing again. **

**R&R if inclined. Thnx.**


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Chapter nine

Once I got to the farthest room in the house from the entrance door – ironic, huh? – I saw… three people. Itachi standing over two dead bodies I could successfully identify as Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha.

I stared at the scene and I felt my face drain of all blood there.

Itachi didn't even look up which either meant that he didn't know I was there, or he was just opting to ignore me. It was particularly annoying, actually. I didn't know why. Just was.

After about ten seconds of seeing the scene in front of me, I screamed. Loud. Then I backed up some and after five steps back, I turned on my heels and ran away from there and to the house phone.

I managed to forget that the other girls were still here and passed them without so much as a glance their way as I stepped into the kitchen and jerked the phone off the receiver.

It was when I had already typed in 911 that I realized I had absolutely _no_ idea what to say.

For some reason, I hung up quickly, before anyone picked up and started panicking. What was I supposed to do?

"Hinata?" I jumped. Remember: I forgot people were in the house other than me and the mass murderer? That's why. I turned quickly and saw Karin looking at me worriedly. "What's wrong?" she asked. No one had followed me to the back room. They hadn't had the time to do so. "What was the scream from before?"

"Mikoto…" was my only answer. It was then that I broke down and fell to the floor and cried in my hands. This was what, two times in two weeks? Wow. I just brought on bad luck, didn't I?

I didn't see the one of the other girls pass me and take the phone because I was still crying in my hands. I didn't see two of them run in the direction I had gone in when I had heard the scream. I didn't see or hear the remaining ones gather around me trying to comfort me. This wasn't right. I didn't see Itachi leave the house, but I don't think anyone did in the confusion. He'd been covered in blood when I saw him and if any of the girls saw him, they would've freaked, surely.

What I did notice was when Sasuke barged in the house and yelled Itachi's name. Of course, he wasn't there. When Sasuke noticed that, he left the house and left Naruto behind him.

I looked up and saw that they had probably been running to get to the house because Naruto was trying to catch his breath while being bent over in two with his hands on his knees. Sasuke wouldn't have shown that he was tired even if he hadn't been angry with his brother. That was just him. As much as I didn't like it.

Damnit! He thought being Mr. Tough Guy was a good thing. I didn't think it was.

The next day I would have school. _Should I go?_ I asked myself. I didn't know if it was wise. I'd done it before, but this time I'd be dragging Sasuke with me and a lot of problems with him.

I would convince Sasuke not to go, but I would. And I would leave Naruto with him. They'd stay, I was sure.

Only problem? Sasuke didn't come back home.

He wasn't at school or home the next day either and I purposely ignored all the concerned glances I was getting from… anyone, really.

The twins presented themselves at the house that afternoon when I was back home and asked what was wrong and where the grown ups and Sasuke were.

"Don't worry about it." I said smiling best I could at the two. I was crouched down so I could be their height and rubbed Keigo's hair, messing it up slightly. "It shouldn't worry you." I could hear my voice, but it was distant. It seemed as if I weren't the one speaking.

"Why are the police in the house?" Keiko asked looking behind me at the police that were inspecting the house.

"Nothing you have to worry about." I said again, my smile faltering. "Hey, let's go out." I said trying to distract them.

Keiko's eyes brightened considerably. "Yes!" she exclaimed. Her blue eyes were practically about to jump right out of their sockets, I was sure. Keigo wasn't so eager, probably understanding that I was trying to change the subject, but I wasn't going to give him the chance to say it out loud, so I got my jacket, told the inspector that I would be back shortly, and left with the two twins.

"So where do you want to go?" I asked Keiko. Keigo would have willingly went back to my house, but I didn't want to, so I didn't ask him. He was too smart for his own good anyway. Like a mini Neji.

"I wanna go to the fair!" she shouted and I immediately smiled. I'd predicted that answer and had brought some money with me. She was jumping up and down and I smiled. I repeat: she was too _cute_!

We walked to the fair and Keiko took my hand like a daughter would to a mother and we talked the whole way there while Keigo's eye gained a serious twitch in his left eye. Maybe he should go get it checked, I thought.

At the fair, Keiko had me and Keigo go on every ride she could go on with her and we got cotton candy.

At some point, I stopped abruptly, causing Keiko and Keigo to bump into me.

"Sasuke!" I yelled letting go of Keiko's hand and running toward the black haired boy, avoiding contact with the other people there.

He turned and seemed surprised when he saw me, but that almost immediately faded and he turned his back to me, causing me to stop abruptly and watch as he walked away from where he was standing before and away from where I was. After a few seconds, I realized my arm was still in midair and I lowered it before turning back to the twins that were still confused as to what I was doing. I also noticed some people had turned to watch me, curiously.

I faked a smile that didn't seem to convince the two, but they didn't ask anything as Keiko grabbed my hand again and we started walking around the fair again, just doing nothing. Again.

"Let's go home." I said looking at my watch. I said I wouldn't be late and I wouldn't. End of story.

"Okay!" they said in unison, falling into step with me.

Once we were at home, the police were gone and Naruto was alone in the house, looking pale as a ghost.

"What happened?" I said concerned. I'd never seen Naruto like that.

He shook his head reassuringly and forced a clearly fake smile, but I decided not to say anything. He was like me: only adopted into the family, but really tied to it. Sasuke's disappearance was a shock to both and so was the murder of Mikoto and Fugaku. We couldn't have cared less about Itachi, the asshole.

… Did I really think that? Wow. Strange. I must've been _really_ ticked.

I didn't eat any dinner, I just made it. And instead, I went to my room and dumped myself on my bed, face first. Why hadn't Sasuke at least acknowledged me? Sure, he'd turned, but that was nothing. It was just to see who knew him there. It wasn't because he knew it was me. That wasn't possible anyway.

The next day at school was the same: no sign of Sasuke. Absolutely nothing and I felt worried. Why wasn't he coming back? I wanted… no:_ needed_ to know. Neji was worried sick about me since I wasn't eating lunch and apparently, I was getting paler every second. Not that it mattered anyway, so I didn't get why they were so preoccupied.

"Hinata." Sakura said at some point during our lunch break. "You have to eat _some_thing. It isn't healthy not to eat anything at all. Even if you are on some sort of a… diet or something. Everyone's worried sick about you." She seemed concerned.

I didn't ignore her, but I didn't listen to her either. Instead, I turned to look at her. "I saw Sasuke yesterday." I said out of nowhere. She looked at me hopefully, but the hope disappeared when I told her he'd turned his back on me when he saw me. I touched my ring and took it off before putting it in my jeans' pocket. "Until he comes back." I whispered to myself.

That was when the bell rang and I left the table with my already empty tray and I put it where the other dirty trays were already stacked. I ignored the people watching my every move. It wasn't like I was about to kill myself because Sasuke was missing as was his brother. God. That would have made absolutely _no_ sense. It was just a boy.

When I was in science, I realized that even Orochimaru was taking it easy on me. Now that was just _weird_. Every question he asked me was one of the easiest even though I knew I could answer the harder ones, and I was sure he knew that also.

After school, I went to theater alone and everyone managed to noticed this. Was it so strange that I wasn't with Sasuke? Or did I just look that distracted and distant? I doubted the latter since, well, it was just a boy. Why would I be depressed over something like _that_?

The more I thought about it, though, I'd come to almost completely stop thinking about Mikoto and Fugaku's deaths and I felt guilty for this. Who was I to just forget about the second mother figure and the closest to a father figure I'd ever had? It wasn't right. I had to put myself in Sasuke's shoes. I was being selfish, wanting him back. I was certain of this… I just… couldn't help it, somehow.

Nothing extraordinary happened in drama and I left after that and went straight home since Naruto was already home and Hanabi had left and Sasuke wasn't present.

I needed to do something other than be at home and at school. Just… something. Not today, but I would find something to do.

At the house, I got on the computer that was in the study and I logged onto msn messenger for… no reason, really. I realized this as I logged in with the name I was registered with.

Then I noticed a suspiciously familiar screen name logged on and I clicked on it before glaring at it.

I sent him a message: 'Where are you? Naruto's worried sick!'

Don't think I noticed how my message was marked as read before he suddenly signed off.

_Oh, I'm so not through with you._ I thought scowling at the completely innocent computer.

Somehow, my scowl turned into tears running down my face and I turned off the computer before getting up and leaving the study to walk to my room unnaturally slowly.

When I was in my room, I dumped myself on the bed face first again and just stayed there for what seemed like hours, while still crying. Was he doing this on purpose? _Well no duh, idiot._ A voice in my head said.

My tears stopped, probably because I didn't have any left to shed, not long after that and I went to my desk and got a book that I was reading up until a few days ago and started reading it again. This calm only lasted for a few hours because my cell phone rang and I had to put the book down.

"Hello?" I said into the receiver. It wasn't Kiba because it didn't have his ID on the screen. But then again, it didn't have any, so I was guessing I didn't know who this was.

A few moments passed and I suddenly got impatient. "Listen, if you have something to say, say it now because I'm hanging up." I waited a few seconds before:

"Wait." A male voice said on the other line. I recognized it immediately.

"Sasuke!" I said, my eyes widening. Then, I felt the surprise turn into anger. "Where are you!" it sounded more like a demand than a question, but I didn't care, really. "Why aren't you coming back? Everyone's worried about you." That's when my voice broke. "Why did you turn your back on me?" I fell on the floor, sobbing quietly.

He hesitated a long while before he sighed. "Hinata, calm down. I just called to inform you that I probably won't be coming back for a while, so don't think much about it. Calm down and return to your normal life." Then he hung up without so much as a 'goodbye'.

That hurt. That really hurt. I didn't even know why it did, but it did. It hurt a lot.

I stared at the phone as tears came to my eyes again and I wiped them away before they had the chance to roll down my cheeks and then I closed it and set it on the desk again before getting my book and lying down on my bed. I couldn't read through the tears that blurred my vision.

I threw the book away from me and it hit the other side of the room making something fall from the dresser that it hit.

I couldn't get up and pick it up because… I just didn't have the strength to. I was still sobbing quietly as I stayed there motionless, probably with red and puffy eyes and tears were probably making my face completely wet without my wanting it and my pillow was damp by the time I fell asleep.

**A/N: I could've done better on this one, I know that, but it was the first thing that came to mind, without looking it over. I'd change too many things… like last chapter. **

**R&R if inclined. Thnx. **


	10. Chapter 10

-Sobs- I had to rewrite the whole thing! Stupid computer's acting up again. –Cries–

Do I have to say it again?

… Fine! I don't own Naruto.

Chapter ten

The next evening I was eating a dinner that consisted of the whole of 'Instant Ramen' that Naruto so liked, in the living room on the couch watching some horror movie by myself since Naruto was too chicken to watch it with.

I had laughed my head off when I'd seen his horrified face when I'd announced I was watching The Grudge and I wasn't going to stand arguing. Of course, he wasn't there when I'd laughed at him, but I had done it. It was my revenge for getting a full time job without my permission.

After the movie I noticed Naruto was in the kitchen, pale as a ghost. He'd probably been listening and I was actually sort of amused that just that had made him this scared.

"Oh come on." I said rolling my eyes. He was one of the very few that had been able to make me smile that day. All the other smiles were fake and only few were able to tell they were. The group was, of course, Neji, Sakura and Kiba that had decided that leaving me alone was too much and so had tracked me down on the internet and had bought an apartment nearby. "It wasn't _that_ bad." I said smiling.

Sasuke was still nowhere to be found and I had told absolutely no one about the call. Why would I? They would only start telling me things I didn't believe in anymore like he'd come back soon or something like that. I was sure he wasn't coming back.

"That's what you think." He said with a rather amusing tone of voice. He sounded scared. Like he was going to be scarred for life.

"Baby." I said teasingly. He was my like my brother now. We got along like I got along with Kiba and only Shino had gotten that close to me. Shino had decided to come too, but he would be coming later on in the month because of some family problems. Or so Kiba had told me. But it was totally understandable that he had problems in his family. It was way too big. That was the main reason there would be any problems at all. He lived with his parents, sister, uncles and aunts, cousins, grandparents and all those people. Kinda like me before father had moved for the first time for 'work'.

I would've enjoyed their company, I was sure. But why wasn't Sasuke coming back? That question had been lingering in my head all day and it didn't seem like it was going to go away for a pretty long while.

Keiko and Keigo were still on my heels every day with the excuse that they wanted to play and go to the park but they couldn't alone. Why couldn't their damn parents bring them places? It was frustrating enough that I had to take care of Naruto who came back home almost dead and if you added the fact that I had to play with these two every day, then I could have been dead if I wasn't me.

Irresponsible parents…

We were at the park about a week later and Kiba had offered himself and Shino to come with and I just thought: _yes! This way I can take a break!_ But of course, they didn't allow that. Keiko and Keigo, didn't. Kiba was trying to distract them from me, but they dragged me around the park not caring that I didn't want to do anything and that Kiba was actually _offering_ himself to be tortured.

I watched as they ran around playing… tag, seen as they had found some friends at the park, and I noticed a presence in the small group. It was that small boy that looked like Sasuke.

I smiled watching him struggle to get away from a girl that had blond hair and was actually pretty tall for her age that was 'it' and I smirked at the look of horror on his face. It was cute, actually. But I couldn't help myself from smirking.

I was surprised he was here if he'd clearly said that he wouldn't come back, but then I remembered what Keiko had said about him being overly dramatic about everything. He probably just lived a few blocks away from Keiko and Keigo and that was the last time he could come over to their house. Not very logical, but hey, it was possible.

Once he looked at me he stopped running for one second. One second only, but it cost him the game as the girl said "You're it!" as she tagged him and laughed as she ran back to the others that were all on the other side of the playground. He sighed and turned before running to the group quickly.

I smiled. He looked so much like…

No. I was _not_ going to think about him.

"You okay?" Kiba asked in a concerned tone.

I nodded and smiled at him. I hoped he was reassured. He did not have to be worried. I was just paranoid, I was getting more and more sure every day that passed by that I thought someone was watching me from around the corner. It was getting annoying, but hey: what were you going to do about it?

Kiba didn't look convinced, but he didn't ask anything else and I was thankful for that.

"Girl!" some boy yelled at me from behind me. I turned and saw the mini Sasuke again running up to me. Why had I even turned? For all I knew, he could have been talking to some girl that was playing with the other kids his age. "Why are you here?" he asked tilting his head when he stopped and stared at me curiously.

My eyes widened a fracture, but then I smiled at him. "Keiko and that subspecies of her brother dragged me here." I said grinning at his confused stare. "Keigo." I explained.

"Oh." He said, his mouth open wide in an almost comical 'O'. "Okay, then. Never mind."

I smiled looking after him. He met up with Keiko and Keigo and I saw Keigo glare at me and Keiko giggle. I smiled and waved at the brooding blond boy and he continued to glare in response. He just looked cute, even when glaring. Sure, he was arrogant, but only when his sister wasn't around him and I had only seen him without her once.

"So you have to stand _that_ every single day?" Kiba said next to me, changing the subject from earlier's 'Are you okay'.

I nodded smiling slightly. "Yeah." I said with a distant tone. I still felt that presence watching me and as much as I tried, I couldn't tune it out and just focus on having a fun time with Kiba, Shino and the twins. I couldn't.

A couple hours after that we left the park and at home.

When I was in the house, I found Naruto on the couch, face down, probably sleeping. I smiled. He'd been doing that a lot lately: coming home and being completely wiped out. But what could he possibly be doing that made him so tired?

Standing in the living room doorway, I suddenly felt someone's arms around my shoulders and I turned still as a statue. Who was it? I couldn't talk, though: I felt a knife at my throat and stayed still. It was a man, that much I knew for sure, but I couldn't turn my head, therefore I couldn't see who it was.

"What are you waiting for? Scream." He almost ordered. The blade of the knife loosened just enough to let me talk without risking, but I didn't give him the satisfaction of screaming to wake Naruto who was sleeping like a rock. "I said _scream_." He said elbowing me in the gut while taking the knife temporarily away from my throat knife temporarily away from my throat and I took this opportunity to completely turn and take his wrist in my hand even though my gut really hurt where he'd hit it. I still wasn't going to scream. Ha! Like that was going to happen.

The man had a… mask. Classic. But this was different. It somehow looked like a raven with some lines made from a dark red color on it. It looked like something I'd drawn during that week and I didn't like it, to tell the truth. I'd even dumped the sketch because it felt… odd, dark and… not good. You get the point.

I was completely silent while he struggled to get out of my grip, and he was pretty strong, so it wasn't that easy to keep him at bay. Then he went limp before kicking my side and I took in a sharp breath, still refusing to scream.

He'd lost the knife… better: dagger, when I had taken his wrist in my hand and it was now about a couple meters away from us. But he made up for the lack of weapon with his iron grip and the fact that I was… intimidated by him.

Then he unexpectedly took one hand away from my hands that were held together by the other one, and grazed my cheek with unexpected delicacy, before muttering something I didn't catch and leaving after pushing me away harshly so I was on the ground. I was holding my head because I'd just hit my head on the side of the coffee table.

Naruto was still snoring, but I wasn't sure he was still asleep. I'd let it go. It didn't matter anyway.

I walked slowly to my room and lied on my bed and wondered who that man was. It was strange. He had almost killed me, but I couldn't help but feel fascinated by him. I didn't really get it, but I was just like that.

Another month, and it would be our wedding day.

I stared at the ring that was on the nightstand somehow and I reached for it, stopping when I realized what I was doing. It would have been like surrendering to Sasuke. I couldn't do that, even though I really wanted him to come back and… I admitted to myself: I'd do anything to get him back. I didn't know why. I'd only known him for about two weeks, then he disappeared leaving everyone… no. Leaving _me_ because of some stupid need of revenge and I didn't accept that. He couldn't just _come_ _back_. He had to earn the right.

'No, he doesn't.' A voice in my head said dismissively. I had no idea how I understood the tones of the annoying voice that always contradicted what I said since it didn't have one.

It was… true, unfortunately.

"Hinata-chan?" I heard Naruto's tired voice yawn from the hallway.

I put my arm over my eyes, snapping it away from the ring on the nightstand just before he knocked on the door. I smiled knowing what he wanted.

"Hinata-chan, what's for dinner?" he said opening the door and looking at me like a five-year-old looks at his mother when he just wakes up. It was cute. Somehow he reminded me of Keigo. I didn't know why. He just did.

"I don't know." I said sitting up. He was still in the doorway and wasn't moving an inch because it was an unwritten rule that no one was allowed in my room if not me or authorized to enter. It had been since Sasuke left. "What would you like?" I asked him signaling him to enter. He was probably too tired to observe the scenery around him thoroughly so it didn't matter.

He yawned very childishly and I found myself giggling.

"What's so funny?" he asked watching me with an eye open.

I shrugged. "Nothing that concerns you." I said with a dismissive tone. "You want ramen, right?"

"Yes!" he shouted, waking up completely. His eyes were wide open in an instant and then he looked up at the ceiling, looking thoughtful. "Hey, I found a knife on the floor in the living room." He looked at me as I undoubtedly paled. "What was it doing there?" he looked at me knowingly, though I shook my head anyway.

"I don't know." I said with a fake smile on my pale face. Hadn't the person taken it back? Guess not. God I was a freaking _idiot_!

He looked at me unbelievingly, but, like Kiba, didn't push the matter further.

I got up from my bed and smiled at him. "You wanna order the ramen or do you want the instant kind?" I asked passing him and leaving the room. "Instant it is!" I said without waiting for an answer.

I got out some packets from the cupboards and then got some water ready to cook with. I think I was trying to avoid talking to Naruto. He was not as stupid as he let on and I did not want him to ask me any more questions that involved the scene from earlier. His voice had sounded familiar, even though it was muffled… but now was _not _the time to think about that since the boiling water was spilling out of the pot.

After a few minutes of that, I gave Naruto his ramen and walked back to my room quietly.

**A/N: grr… I cannot think of what to write. Help, please? **

**R&R thnx. **


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Thnx for reminding me.

Sasukeuchiha911 told me to write what Sasuke's doing, so that I will write since it's the only… suggestion I got.

Oh, and it took long because I'm suffering from writer's block. Help!

Chapter 11

**Back in time two weeks worth**.

Sasuke was being bugged by Naruto telling him just to tell Hinata something while they were walking back to their house from the _stupid_ mall. God. The boys sure were _creative_! They'd seen the girls, but they were too busy looking around for a new shop to enter and dragging Hinata anywhere they went.

That was when his phone started ringing and he got it out of his pocket, saw Sakura's name on the screen, and inwardly groaned before opening the cell and answering.

"Hn." He said. It was his… greeting, for lack of a better word, when talking to one of the hyperactive people that knew him.

"Sasuke… I don't…" she started, struggling with her words. "Your parents… Itachi, umm." She said hesitating. "He snapped." She decided on that and didn't say anything else, knowing that if she did say anything else, he would have started yelling and she did _not_ want to deal with an angry Sasuke.

His eyes widened and then he glared at the nothingness in front of him before walking quickly towards the mansion he lived in, closing his phone and putting it back in his pocket.

Itachi had always had problems… obsessions with killing, murdering. However, he'd never tried to do anything to his family. He'd always threatened before Hinata came, that was probably why she wasn't expecting this, and it wasn't comforting that he'd _snapped_, how Sakura had put it.

When he arrived, his suspicions were confirmed as he saw Karin, Ino and Tenten around something and trying to comfort it, while Sakura was walking back with a solemn expression on her face in the hallway with Temari. Itachi had clearly fled, but he wasn't going to just give up on finding him like anyone else would have done. Yep: good ol' heroic Sasuke.

He discovered the person in the middle of the preppy girls was Hinata and she looked desperate and confused and… she was crying. All for _his _parents. Was that something a normal person would do? He thought about it, but that didn't stop him from leaving the house of his own accord even though it somehow pained him to see Hinata like that. Like when her mother had died, only she hadn't cried in front of _any_one then.

He knew it would be hard to actually _find_ Itachi because he had access to all the private Uchiha jets and could have been over the Atlantic, for all Sasuke knew; but first, he'd check the bar Itachi was so popular at because of his gay ass friends.

When he got there, he saw Deidara, a person with long blond hair that covered the left side of his face; Tobi, some apprentice kid that acted like an idiot and referred to himself in third person; Konan, the only girl of the group that had blue hair and various piercings; and Pein, a guy with orange hair and maybe more piercings than Konan, sitting at a table whispering.

Sasuke sat down in the booth in the far corner so that he wouldn't be seen, but would be able to hear the conversation.

"It's done, right?" Konan said into her phone. He was probably talking to Itachi. In fact, no one said anything for a good second. "Good. Yes, we will. You were seen? That is a slight problem… but nothing _we_ can't take care of." She said calmly.

There was another pause and after it, she closed the cell phone with that same calm look on her face.

She looked at the other four and sighed. "Of course, that… _Hinata_ had to get in the way." She said the name with such disgust and anger it surprised Tobi, though you couldn't see it under the childish mask he wore, even if he was about 23, so a couple years younger than everyone else. The other two were used to it. "But the job _is_ done, clearly." She said in an obvious tone.

The others were impassive, but nodded.

"Now what?" Deidara said, turning to Pein.

"We wait." Konan answered in Pein's place. "See what the girl does. If she tries to call the police on Itachi – something I doubt will happen – we kill her. Not that it's something new to us. And she probably won't even think about calling the cops since she's just too much of a goody-goody two shoes." She said in a matter of fact tone.

Sasuke almost slapped his forehead knowing she was right. No matter what happened, Hinata was bound to forgive and forget. It didn't matter, though. Actually, it was better like that.

"Deidara, Tobi: you will watch her and report if she does something… out of the ordinary or eliminate her if needed." Pein said looking pensive. "Konan will watch Sasuke since we don't want him to be a bother… and… tell the others to stay on guard." He looked at the other three who nodded and Deidara and Tobi left right after. Konan left after saying something in a low tone to Pein who nodded and dismissed her.

Sasuke waited about another two hours for Pein to leave so he could leave himself. If Pein saw him, he didn't really know what could have happened and neither did he want to find out (translation: he was scared, but he would never admit that to himself).

When he left the bar, he debated on whether he should go 'home' or just plain leave and look for Itachi who still couldn't be found.

Sadly, he opted for the latter.

However, he did pass by the house for money that he had stashed up in the corner of his drawer in his room, but it was at one a.m. the next day, so no one saw or heard him except Naruto that kept silence about it for the rest of the month.

Konan watched the boy as he left the house at about one thirty, chewing on some gum that helped her to calm down her nerves and not burst into the house and kill the indigo haired girl that was peacefully sleeping in her room.

She watched him as he put a good and large wad of money in his backpack and put a credit card in his pocket.

A week later, the ebony haired boy received a letter that stated that he had to meet some anonymous person at… a carnival? That seemed pretty odd. To him at least. Of course, he was not this random person.

So he got out of the apartment he had bought and went to this carnival that was too close to his old house for comfort, but he had no choice: the letter had also said that this source was the only one he could get information of Itachi from.

"Sasuke, right?" came Konan's voice from behind him at one point. "Don't turn around." She warned him as he started to turn to look at her. "Since you haven't made any progress with this Itachi thing, I thought it would be okay to tell you that he went north, the same direction that Hinata's father and sister went." She paused, watching his reaction, which was a stiff posture and the tendency to turn around and start running. "No, no, calm down. Your girlfriend's coming, just watch." She said with a smirk, holding him in place until she saw the girl coming from their right. "I'm going to leave you here, look surprised when you see her, 'kay?" then she let go of him and watched the scene unravel.

For some reason, he stayed where he was instead of running away and trying to get Itachi. That's when he heard her call his name.

"Sasuke!" that was definitely her voice, no doubt about it.

He turned to look at her and, instead of just acting, he really was surprised, but then he frowned and turned, walking away. He couldn't let himself get distracted when he was trying to get to Itachi and, hopefully, kill him, if not, he'd give him to the police.

When he was out of Hinata's sight, he started running and called for a taxi.

Where had Hiashi and Hanabi gone? Oh yeah! "Take me to Cumo and step on it." He said urgently to the driver. It was a good thing he still had a lot of money: the trip to Cumo would cost a lot of money…

About two hours later, he was there and giving the driver one hundred and twenty dollars; then he was running to the address he knew the two Hyuugas were living at. He rang the doorbell many times and finally Hanabi answered.

"Sasuke?" she asked, shaking her head to be sure it was really him. "What are you doing here? Naruto called me and told me you ran away and-" but she was caught off by a relieved sigh on Sasuke's part.

"You're okay. That's good." He said with a frown on his face. Then he collapsed on the ground and she gasped.

"Come on, sit down on a chair or something, okay?" she said to him, sounding almost too gentle to be her. "Don't think I'm doing this for you, okay? I'm doing it for my sister; that poor woman has to deal with your runaway and I'm sure she's a wreck. She isn't exactly the most strong hearted out of you and your friends." Now he got it: she was trying to guilt him into going back.

"It's useless. Until I get that bastard behind bars, I'm not going back, and I can't find him because there are no tracks or hints anywhere. No random murders, nothing." he sighed.

Hanabi silenced herself, then sighed. A lot of people were doing that right now. Strange. "Well, that isn't completely true. My father's secretary was killed during an attack at my father. They couldn't see the face of the assaulter because he had some sort of a mask."

"What mask?" Sasuke asked, suddenly suspicious. His brother had a collection of masks that he made and they were all weird in their own way.

"Well, it was shaped like a raven's head and it had some markings on it." She said, looking pensive for a moment while answering. She'd been there, during the attack, and she hadn't been affected at all. Was that normal?

"Shit." He mumbled. "Do you know where he went? Did someone try to follow him?" he asked her urgently, his hand squeezing her shoulder.

"First of all, you're hurting me." She said, glaring at him. "And second, he went south. That's all they know though, he could've gone anywhere, but he threw them off somehow. And it isn't easy to throw off the FBI, you know." She finished with an appraising note in her tone of voice. "He's good."

He glared at her, but sighed anyway. "Can I stay here for tonight? Maybe tomorrow also: I need to get away from reality for a while and think things over."

She raised an eyebrow, but nodded nonetheless. "Just promise that you will eventually go back to Hinata. She's a mess: Naruto told me. She hasn't taken the ring off yet either." Her voice trailed off and she stared into space, probably thinking about her sister.

The night passed and so did the next morning. Hiashi had gone somewhere about two days ago and wouldn't be back until a few more had passed, so he didn't know that Sasuke was missing from Konoha and at his house. If he did, he'd have been thrown out of the house in a heartbeat.

"Can I use your computer?" Sasuke asked his future sister in law.

She nodded and gestured toward the office while watching Gilmore Girls. Clearly, they were reruns, but she was watching them anyway. He would have gotten annoyed right away: he didn't like reruns. Why did they have to show the same thing over and over again? He would never understand.

He got there, read his messages, and was about to sign off until another message arrived from Hinata…

He hesitated before reading it.

'_Where are you? Naruto's worried sick!'_

He sighed and closed the box before signing off. For real, this time, though. But, of course, there was the stab of guilt for not answering Hinata's message so he decided to call her, and this time he wasn't going to ask Hanabi if he could: he was going to use his cell anyway.

The phone rang two times before she picked up.

"Hello?" her voice was inquisitive and it sounded like she'd just been crying, or near tears, in any case. He didn't respond at first, afraid of her reaction. "Listen, if you have something to say, say it now because I'm hanging up."

"Wait." Sasuke said after a few seconds.

"Sasuke?" she sounded surprised, not angry… yet. "Where are you? Why aren't you coming back? Everyone's worried about you." She continued, this time very angry, then she started crying. "Why did you turn your back on me?"

There was a silence between the two, interrupted by her sobs before he said: "Hinata, calm down. I just called to inform you that I probably won't be coming back for a while, so don't think much about it. Calm down and return to your normal life." Then he hung up, not finding the courage to say anything more. Not even 'goodbye'.

Then his phone rang again and he looked at it. 'Private caller' was written in place of the caller ID.

"Hello?" he asked. Normally he would've said 'What?' but he felt guilty, so he'd be nice to whoever it was… unless it was Itachi. That was a different story completely.

"Hello, little brother." Said a deep voice he recognized right away. Oh the irony.

"You asshole! Where are you?!" Sasuke asked, almost yelling.

"Like I'm going to tell you." Itachi answered with a low chuckle. "I just called to tell you that you're looking for me in the wrong place. That was to throw you off, dumbass." He was trying not to laugh as he spoke, and Sasuke could tell.

The line went dead after that and Sasuke almost broke his cell phone. Good thing he stopped before it actually did break: it could've come in handy later.

**A/N: it took me almost a year to come up with this crap, but I had serious writer's block. And I also have a habit of not finishing things when I start them, but I'm going to finish this story… it'll just take a while, I think. **

**I'm really sorry and I'll try to update earlier this time. Thnx for actually still being here, reading this… story. **

**R&R. even criticism is okay. I didn't know what to write, honest, so help me for the next chapter… PLEASE! –cries–**


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